Vercel CLI Skill

The Vercel CLI (vercel or vc) deploys, manages, and develops projects on the Vercel platform from the command line. Use vercel <command> -h for full flag details on any command.

Critical: Project Linking

Commands must be run from the directory containing the .vercel folder (or a subdirectory of it). How .vercel gets set up depends on your project structure:

• •.vercel/project.json: Created by vercel link. Links a single project. Fine for single-project repos, and can work in monorepos if there's only one project.
• •.vercel/repo.json: Created by vercel link --repo. Links a repo that may contain multiple projects. Always a good idea when any project has a non-root directory (e.g., apps/web).

Running from a project subdirectory (e.g., apps/web/) skips the "which project?" prompt since it's unambiguous.

When something goes wrong, check how things are linked first — look at what's in .vercel/ and whether it's project.json or repo.json. Also verify you're on the right team with vercel whoami — linking while on the wrong team is a common mistake.

Quick Start

npm i -g vercel
vercel login
vercel link              # single project
# OR
vercel link --repo       # monorepo
vercel pull
vercel dev        # local development
vercel deploy     # preview deployment
vercel --prod     # production deployment

Decision Tree

Use this to route to the correct reference file:

• •Deploy → references/deployment.md
• •Local development → references/local-development.md
• •Environment variables → references/environment-variables.md
• •CI/CD automation → references/ci-automation.md
• •Domains or DNS → references/domains-and-dns.md
• •Projects or teams → references/projects-and-teams.md
• •Logs, debugging, or accessing preview deploys → references/monitoring-and-debugging.md
• •Blob storage → references/storage.md
• •Integrations (databases, storage, etc.) → references/integrations.md
• •Access a preview deployment → use vercel curl (see references/monitoring-and-debugging.md)
• •CLI doesn't have a command for it → use vercel api as a fallback (see references/advanced.md)
• •Advanced (API, webhooks) → references/advanced.md
• •Global flags → references/global-options.md
• •First-time setup → references/getting-started.md

Anti-Patterns

• •Wrong link type in monorepos with multiple projects: vercel link creates project.json, which only tracks one project. Use vercel link --repo instead. When things break, check .vercel/ first.
• •Letting commands auto-link in monorepos: Many commands implicitly run vercel link if .vercel/ doesn't exist. This creates project.json, which may be wrong. Run vercel link (or --repo) explicitly first.
• •Linking while on the wrong team: Use vercel whoami to check, vercel teams switch to change.
• •Forgetting --yes in CI: Required to skip interactive prompts.
• •Using vercel deploy after vercel build without --prebuilt: The build output is ignored.
• •Hardcoding tokens in flags: Use VERCEL_TOKEN env var instead of --token.
• •Disabling deployment protection: Use vercel curl instead to access preview deploys.