Deploy to Vercel

Vercel is a great fit for Astro sites — they were one of the first hosts to ship a first-class Astro adapter, and the build defaults Just Work.

Option A — Connect a Git repository

1. Push your theme to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.

   git init
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit"
   git branch -M main
   git remote add origin https://github.com/you/your-site.git
   git push -u origin main

2. Import the repo on Vercel: vercel.com/new → select your repo.

3. Build settings — Vercel auto-detects Astro. You shouldn’t need to change anything, but if it asks:

   Setting	Value
   Framework Preset	Astro
   Build Command	npm run build
   Output Directory	dist
   Install Command	npm install
   Node Version	20 (Vercel default)

4. Deploy.

The first build takes 60–90 seconds. Every subsequent git push to main triggers an automatic redeploy; pushes to other branches generate preview URLs.

Option B — Vercel CLI

The fastest way to deploy a one-off demo without setting up Git.

1. Install the CLI:

   npm install -g vercel

2. Deploy from the project root:

   npm run deploy:vercel

   That maps to npx vercel --prod in the bundled package.json. First run asks a few questions (project name, scope); subsequent runs go straight to deploy.

   On first deploy you’ll see something like:

   ✓ Production: https://my-site-abc.vercel.app [2s]

Custom domain

1. On the project page → Settings → Domains → Add.
2. Enter your domain (e.g. aurora.dev).
3. Vercel gives you a DNS record to add at your registrar (A record for an apex domain, CNAME for a subdomain).
4. SSL is automatic — Let’s Encrypt within a few minutes.

See Custom domain for the full walkthrough.

Edge functions & ISR

Every AeroLaunch theme builds to static output (output: 'static' in astro.config.mjs). That means no Vercel functions, no edge runtime, no ISR — pure static files. If you want to enable server-side features (e.g. an API route), you’d need to:

1. Install Vercel’s Astro adapter: npm install @astrojs/vercel
2. Update astro.config.mjs to use the adapter and set output: 'server'.
3. Add server routes as .ts files in src/pages/api/.

This is intentionally out of scope for the bundled themes — they’re designed to deploy anywhere static. Add the adapter only if you have a clear need.

Common gotchas

Cannot find module ... during build

Probably a stale dependency. Bump the lockfile:

rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install
git commit -am "Refresh lockfile"
git push

Vercel uses the lockfile in your repo, so updating it locally and committing solves most version-mismatch errors.

Old image cache after deploy

Vercel caches images aggressively. To force a fresh image, change the filename (or its query string), don’t replace the same path in-place.

Preview URLs for every branch

Vercel auto-generates a preview URL for every branch push. Useful for sharing client previews — push a feature/new-pricing branch, share the Vercel-generated URL.

What’s next

• Custom domain — point a real domain at this deploy.
• Cloudflare Pages — alternate static host.
• Netlify — required if you use Netlify Forms.