Vercel CLI Skill

The Vercel CLI (

vercel

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

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

bash

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.

vercel-cli

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Vercel CLI Skill

Critical: Project Linking

Quick Start

Decision Tree

Anti-Patterns