#Vercel Deployment

Vercel is the easiest path to production. Push to Git, get a URL. Alepha generates the exact structure Vercel expects.

Important: Serverless Limitations

Vercel runs your app as serverless functions. This means some Alepha modules that require long-running processes are not compatible:

• $queue - Background job queues
• $scheduler - Cron-based scheduled tasks
• $topic - Pub/sub messaging

Memory providers are not recommended. Each serverless invocation runs in isolation, so in-memory state (like MemoryCacheProvider) won't persist between requests. Use Vercel KV (Redis) or external Redis for caching and state.

All other modules work perfectly: $action, $page, $entity, $repository, $cache (with Redis), $bucket, $issuer, $realm, and more.

For background jobs on Vercel, use Vercel Cron Jobs instead.

#Quick Start

npx alepha build --vercel
cd dist && vercel deploy

That's it. Your $actions become serverless functions. Your $pages get SSR. Static assets go to the CDN.

#What Gets Generated

dist/
├── api/
│   └── index.js      # Serverless function entry point
├── public/           # CDN assets
├── vercel.json       # Route rewrites
└── .vercel/
    └── project.json  # Project linking

#Configuration

Configure Vercel in your vite.config.ts:

 1import { viteAlepha } from "alepha/vite"; 2import { defineConfig } from "vite"; 3  4export default defineConfig({ 5  plugins: [ 6    viteAlepha({ 7      vercel: { 8        // Required: link to your Vercel project 9        projectId: process.env.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID,10        orgId: process.env.VERCEL_ORG_ID,11 12        // Optional: add cron jobs13        config: {14          crons: [15            { path: "/api/cron/cleanup", schedule: "0 0 * * *" }16          ]17        }18      }19    })20  ]21});

#Environment Variables

#Required for Build & Deploy

These must be set for alepha build --vercel to work:

You can find these in your Vercel dashboard under Project Settings → General.

#Recommended for Production

Set variables in your Vercel dashboard or via CLI:

vercel env add APP_SECRET your-secret-key
vercel env add DATABASE_URL postgres://...

#Storage Variables

#Cold Starts

Vercel serverless functions experience cold starts - a delay when your function hasn't been invoked recently and needs to initialize.

What to expect:

• Free tier: Cold starts can be noticeable (1-3 seconds)
• Pro tier: Faster cold starts with more resources
• Enterprise: Provisioned concurrency available

Alepha is Serverless Native. We design the framework with serverless in mind and continuously optimize startup performance. However, the free tier has resource constraints that affect cold start times.

Tips to reduce cold starts:

• Keep your bundle size small
• Minimize dependencies
• Use Vercel Pro for production workloads
• Consider Docker deployment if cold starts are unacceptable

We're actively working every day to improve loading performance on serverless platforms.

#File Storage with Vercel Blob

Need file uploads? Use Vercel Blob storage:

1import { $bucket } from "alepha/bucket";2import { AlephaBucketVercel } from "@alepha/bucket-vercel";3 4class MyApp {5  avatars = $bucket({ name: "avatars", maxSize: 5 }); // 5 MB limit6}7 8// In your main.ts9alepha.with(AlephaBucketVercel);

Set BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN in your Vercel environment variables. Done.

#Cron Jobs

Since $scheduler doesn't work on serverless, use Vercel's native cron jobs instead:

 1viteAlepha({ 2  vercel: { 3    projectId: process.env.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID, 4    orgId: process.env.VERCEL_ORG_ID, 5    config: { 6      crons: [ 7        { path: "/api/cron/daily-cleanup", schedule: "0 0 * * *" }, 8        { path: "/api/cron/hourly-sync", schedule: "0 * * * *" } 9      ]10    }11  }12})

Then create the corresponding actions:

1export const dailyCleanup = $action({2  route: { method: "GET", path: "/cron/daily-cleanup" },3  handler: async () => {4    // Your cleanup logic5    return { success: true };6  }7});

#Database Options

#Vercel Postgres

# Add Vercel Postgres integration
vercel integrations add postgres

The DATABASE_URL is automatically set.

#External Postgres

Use any Postgres provider (Neon, Supabase, Railway):

DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host:5432/database?sslmode=require

#Deployment Commands

# Preview deployment
npx alepha build --vercel && cd dist && vercel

# Production deployment
npx alepha build --vercel && cd dist && vercel --prod