Vercel Prod Checklist

Overview

Complete pre-production checklist for Vercel deployments covering environment variables, domain configuration, performance, security, monitoring, and instant rollback procedures.

Prerequisites

Staging deployment tested and verified
Production domain DNS configured
Production environment variables set
Monitoring and alerting configured

Instructions

Step 1: Pre-Deploy Verification

# Verify production env vars are set
vercel env ls --environment=production

# Required production variables (example):
# DATABASE_URL — production database
# API_SECRET — production API key (type: sensitive)
# NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL — public API endpoint
# SENTRY_DSN — error tracking

# Build locally to catch errors before deploying
vercel build --prod

# Run test suite
npm test

Step 2: Production Deploy

# Option A: Deploy directly to production
vercel --prod

# Option B: Promote an existing preview deployment
vercel promote https://my-app-git-main-team.vercel.app

# Option C: Deploy via API
curl -X POST "https://api.vercel.com/v13/deployments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VERCEL_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-app",
    "target": "production",
    "gitSource": {
      "type": "github",
      "repoId": "123456789",
      "ref": "main",
      "sha": "abc123"
    }
  }'

Step 3: Domain Configuration

# Add production domain
vercel domains add yourdomain.com

# Verify domain DNS
vercel domains inspect yourdomain.com

# DNS setup for apex domain (yourdomain.com):
# A record → 76.76.21.21
# AAAA record → (Vercel provides)

# DNS setup for subdomain (www.yourdomain.com):
# CNAME → cname.vercel-dns.com

# SSL is automatically provisioned after DNS verification

Step 4: Post-Deploy Health Checks

# Verify production is responding
curl -sI https://yourdomain.com | head -5

# Test API endpoints
curl -s https://yourdomain.com/api/health | jq .

# Check SSL certificate
curl -vI https://yourdomain.com 2>&1 | grep "SSL certificate"

# Verify security headers
curl -sI https://yourdomain.com | grep -i "strict-transport\|x-frame\|x-content-type"

# Test from multiple regions (using Vercel's edge)
for region in iad1 sfo1 cdg1 hnd1; do
  echo "Region: $region"
  curl -s -H "x-vercel-ip-country: US" https://yourdomain.com/api/health
done

Step 5: Instant Rollback Procedure

# If something goes wrong — instant rollback (no rebuild needed)
vercel rollback

# Or rollback to a specific deployment
vercel rollback dpl_xxxxxxxxxxxx

# Or via API
curl -X POST "https://api.vercel.com/v9/projects/my-app/promote" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VERCEL_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"deploymentId": "dpl_previous_good_deployment"}'

# Verify rollback succeeded
vercel ls --prod
curl -s https://yourdomain.com/api/health

Step 6: Configure Function Regions and Limits

// vercel.json — production optimization
{
  "regions": ["iad1"],
  "functions": {
    "api/**/*.ts": {
      "memory": 1024,
      "maxDuration": 30
    },
    "api/heavy-compute.ts": {
      "memory": 3008,
      "maxDuration": 60
    }
  }
}

Production Checklist

Build & Deploy

npm run build succeeds locally
All tests passing
No TypeScript errors (npx tsc --noEmit)
Preview deployment tested by team
vercel --prod or promotion executed

Environment Variables

All required vars set for Production environment
Secrets typed as sensitive (hidden in logs)
No NEXT_PUBLIC_ prefix on secrets
Database URLs point to production instances

Domain & SSL

Custom domain added and DNS verified
SSL certificate auto-provisioned and valid
www subdomain redirects correctly
HSTS header enabled

Security

Security headers configured (CSP, X-Frame-Options, etc.)
Preview deployment protection enabled
API routes require authentication
CORS configured for production origins only

Performance

Function regions set closest to your database
maxDuration set appropriately per function
Cache-Control headers configured
Bundle size within budget (check with vercel inspect)
Core Web Vitals in green (LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1)

Monitoring

Error tracking configured (Sentry, Datadog, etc.)
Vercel Analytics enabled in dashboard
Runtime logs accessible
Alert on error rate spikes

Rollback

Previous production deployment identified for rollback
vercel rollback tested in staging
Team knows rollback procedure

Output

Production deployment live on custom domain
Health checks passing
Security headers verified
Rollback procedure documented and tested

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
`DEPLOYMENT_BLOCKED`	Branch protection or deployment freeze	Check team settings in dashboard
SSL not provisioned	DNS not propagated	Wait for DNS propagation, verify records
Env var undefined	Not scoped to Production	Add via `vercel env add <key> production`
Function cold starts in prod	No warm-up traffic	Enable concurrency scaling or use edge functions
Rollback fails	Previous deployment expired	Redeploy from known good commit

Resources

Next Steps

For version upgrades, see vercel-upgrade-migration.

vercel-prod-checklist