Vercel

Launchy deploys to Vercel with zero config. Below is the exact sequence for a production-ready setup.

1. Provision services

Postgres — Neon

1. neon.tech → Create project
2. Copy the Pooled connection string (for app runtime)
3. Copy the Direct connection string (for migrations — no pooling)

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:[email protected]/neondb?sslmode=require
# For migrations only (optional but recommended on Neon):
DATABASE_DIRECT_URL=postgresql://user:[email protected]/neondb?sslmode=require

Redis — Upstash

1. upstash.com → Create Redis database
2. Pick the same region as your Vercel deploy
3. Copy the TCP endpoint:

REDIS_HOST=eu1-xxx.upstash.io
REDIS_PORT=6379
REDIS_PASSWORD=...

R2 — Cloudflare

See R2 Storage integration for the full setup. You'll end with:

R2_ACCOUNT_ID=...
R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
R2_BUCKET_NAME=launchy-uploads
R2_PUBLIC_URL=https://cdn.your-domain.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_CDN_HOSTNAME=cdn.your-domain.com

Stripe, Plunk, Discord, Turnstile

All optional on first deploy. Add later from .env.example.

2. Deploy to Vercel

1. Push your code to a private GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket repo
2. vercel.com/new → Import Git Repository → pick your repo
3. Framework preset: Next.js (auto-detected)
4. Root directory: leave default
5. Environment Variables section: paste everything from your .env (see Environment Variables for the full list)

Critical env vars that must be set:

DATABASE_URL=...
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=<openssl rand -base64 32>
BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com
REDIS_HOST=...
REDIS_PASSWORD=...
CRON_SECRET=<openssl rand -base64 32>

6. Click Deploy

First deploy takes 2–3 minutes.

3. Run the migration

Vercel doesn't run migrations automatically. You need to push the schema once:

# From your local machine, with production DATABASE_URL:
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://...prod..." bun db:push

Alternatively, add a Build Command that runs migrations:

bun db:push && bun run build

But be careful — db:push can truncate data if it detects a column rename as a drop. For production migrations, use versioned migrations:

# Generate a migration locally:
bun drizzle-kit generate
# Commit the generated SQL in drizzle/
# Deploy (Vercel runs it automatically if you use drizzle-kit migrate in the build command)

4. Point your domain

1. Vercel project → Settings → Domains → Add
2. Enter your-domain.com
3. Update your DNS registrar with the CNAME/A records Vercel provides
4. Wait for propagation (5-60 min)
5. TLS certificate issues automatically

Update BETTER_AUTH_URL to the final domain:

BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com

Redeploy (Vercel → Deployments → latest → Redeploy) so the new env var takes effect.

5. Configure the cron

Launchy ships a vercel.json at the repo root with both crons registered:

{
  "crons": [
    { "path": "/api/cron/weekly-batch",       "schedule": "0 6 * * 1" },
    { "path": "/api/cron/cleanup-highlights", "schedule": "0 0 * * *" }
  ]
}

Schedules are UTC. The two crons are:

• weekly-batch — publishes the next batch + sends the newsletter. Default: Monday 06:00 UTC.
• cleanup-highlights — clears highlight_expires_at on expired Highlight products. Default: daily at 00:00 UTC.

If you change your launch_day / launch_hour_utc settings in /admin/settings, you must also edit the weekly-batch schedule in vercel.json to match (e.g., 0 14 * * 3 for Wednesday 14:00 UTC) and redeploy.

Vercel Hobby tier allows up to 2 cron jobs — these two fit exactly.

Vercel's cron calls include an x-vercel-cron-signature header, which the routes accept in place of Authorization: Bearer $CRON_SECRET.

6. Set up Stripe webhook

See Stripe integration → production section. Webhook endpoint: https://your-domain.com/api/stripe/webhook.

7. First visit checks

• Homepage loads
• Sign up works, verification email arrives (if Plunk configured)
• Sign in works
• /admin accessible after SQL promote
• /admin/settings loads and saves work
• Trigger cron manually: curl -X POST https://your-domain.com/api/cron/weekly-batch -H "Authorization: Bearer $CRON_SECRET"
• No errors in Vercel → Functions → Logs

Preview deployments

Every Git branch pushed creates a Vercel preview URL. To prevent auth issues:

1. Vercel → Settings → Environment Variables → BETTER_AUTH_URL → Set per environment:
   • Production → https://your-domain.com
   • Preview → leave blank or use VERCEL_URL computed at runtime

Or skip Better Auth's URL validation in preview by setting NODE_ENV=development — but that's hacky.

Cleanest: don't rely on auth in previews. Use them for UI review only.

Monitoring

Vercel Dashboard shows:

• Functions — logs of every serverless invocation
• Analytics — Web Vitals (if enabled)
• Logs — real-time tail

Set up log drains to Axiom / Datadog / Logtail for longer retention.

Scaling beyond Vercel free tier

Vercel Pro ($20/mo) is plenty for most directories until 100k monthly visitors. Beyond that:

• Consider moving the DB to a paid Neon plan or a dedicated Postgres VPS
• Consider Vercel Enterprise or migrating to self-host

Launchy itself has no architectural scaling limits — Next.js on Vercel Edge/Node scales horizontally.

Common issues

"DATABASE_URL not set" — Variable missing or wrong scope (Production vs Preview). Double-check Vercel → Settings → Environment Variables.

OAuth redirect loop after deploy — BETTER_AUTH_URL must be the final production URL (not vercel.app). Update, redeploy.

Images not loading — NEXT_PUBLIC_CDN_HOSTNAME missing. Add, redeploy.

Cron never runs — Check vercel.json is in root and committed. Vercel → Crons tab shows scheduled jobs.