Before getting with this session, if you don't know how to create a Vercel app and use it with GitHub Action. Please refer to Deploy frontend application (React) to Vercel using Github Action - Part 1.

Get started

Back to your React app at Part 1, setup a new pipeline located at .github/workflow/buildAndDeploy.yaml as following.

We have 3 stages: Setup, build and deploy to make your Vercel application will be build and deploy independently.

Setup:

This stage will determine which is environment your application is going to be deployed (preview or production) by checking the github.ref. The environment will be stored in $GITHUB_OUTPUT (an public variable from GitHub to store the output from step)
- If github.ref is refs/heads/master, we can assign the pipeline would be used for production environment.
- Otherwise, any github.ref is different from refs/heads/master, we will assign to preview environment.
Then, we also checkout the source code from GitHub repository, pull the environment variables which belong to your target environment to prepare for the build stage. The environment variable will be artifact to your GitHub by using actions/upload-artifact@v4

setup:
  name: Setup
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  outputs:
    env: ${{ steps.check-target-deployment.outputs.env }}
  steps:
    - name: Check target deployment
      id: check-target-deployment
      run: |
        if [[ "${{ github.ref }}" == "refs/heads/master" ]]; then
          echo "env=production" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
        else
          echo "env=preview" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
        fi
    - name: Checkout Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Install Vercel CLI
      run: npm install --global vercel@latest

    - name: Pull Vercel Environment Information
      run: |
        vercel pull --yes --environment=${{ steps.check-target-deployment.outputs.env }} \
          --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

    - name: List Vercel Environment Files
      run: ls -la .vercel

    - name: Upload Vercel Environment Files as Artifact
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: vercel-environment-files
        path: .vercel/
        include-hidden-files: true

Build:

This stage will build your Vercel application by using GitHub Action. The environment (preview or production) and environment variables which are using in this stage will depend on Setup, the environment (preview or production) and environment variables will depend on Setup.

The first step, we also need to checkout the source code from Git repository.
Then, download the artifact which store at Setup step.
Run vercel build with your VERCEL_TOKEN and target environment from $GITHUB_OUTPUT
Artifact your build output to GitHub artifact

build:
  name: Build Vercel ${{ needs.setup.outputs.env  }} environment
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  needs: [setup]
  steps:
    - name: Checkout Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Install Vercel CLI
      run: npm install --global vercel@latest

    - name: Download Vercel Environment Files
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: vercel-environment-files
        path: .vercel/

    - name: Build Project Artifacts
      run: vercel build --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }} --target=${{ needs.setup.outputs.env }}

    - name: List Build Output Files
      run: ls -la .vercel/output

    - name: Upload Build Artifacts
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: vercel-build-output
        path: .vercel/output
        include-hidden-files: true

Deploy

At build stage, we've already built and uploaded your output to artifact, and we also use the output from $GITHUB_OUTPUT at setup stage, then, this stage will be also depended on them. Now, let's see how deploy stage works with it.

deploy:
  name: Deploy to Vercel ${{ needs.setup.outputs.env || 'preview' }} environment
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  needs: [setup, build]
  steps:
    - name: Download Build Artifacts
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: vercel-build-output
        path: .vercel/output

    - name: List Build Output Files
      run: ls -la .vercel/output

    - name: Install Vercel CLI
      run: npm install --global vercel@latest

    - name: Deploy Project Artifacts to Vercel
      run: |
        vercel deploy --prebuilt --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }} \
          --target=${{ needs.setup.outputs.env || 'preview' }}

You're done

The following is buildAndDeploy.yaml file by using 3 above stages. Additionally, I've limited the target branches which GitHub Action can be trigger if there are any push actions to develop and master. You can change to any branches you need.

name: Build and deploy to Vercel

env:
  VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
  VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
      - develop
jobs:
  setup:
    name: Setup
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      env: ${{ steps.check-target-deployment.outputs.env }}
    steps:
      - name: Check target deployment
        id: check-target-deployment
        run: |
          if [[ "${{ github.ref }}" == "refs/heads/master" ]]; then
            echo "env=production" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          else
            echo "env=preview" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          fi
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Install Vercel CLI
        run: npm install --global vercel@latest

      - name: Pull Vercel Environment Information
        run: |
          vercel pull --yes --environment=${{ steps.check-target-deployment.outputs.env }} \
            --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: List Vercel Environment Files
        run: ls -la .vercel

      - name: Upload Vercel Environment Files as Artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: vercel-environment-files
          path: .vercel/
          include-hidden-files: true

  build:
    name: Build Vercel ${{ needs.setup.outputs.env  }} environment
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [setup]
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Install Vercel CLI
        run: npm install --global vercel@latest

      - name: Download Vercel Environment Files
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: vercel-environment-files
          path: .vercel/

      - name: Build Project Artifacts
        run: vercel build --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }} --target=${{ needs.setup.outputs.env }}

      - name: List Build Output Files
        run: ls -la .vercel/output

      - name: Upload Build Artifacts
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: vercel-build-output
          path: .vercel/output
          include-hidden-files: true

  deploy:
    name: Deploy to Vercel ${{ needs.setup.outputs.env || 'preview' }} environment
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [setup, build]
    steps:
      - name: Download Build Artifacts
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: vercel-build-output
          path: .vercel/output

      - name: List Build Output Files
        run: ls -la .vercel/output

      - name: Install Vercel CLI
        run: npm install --global vercel@latest

      - name: Deploy Project Artifacts to Vercel
        run: |
          vercel deploy --prebuilt --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }} \
            --target=${{ needs.setup.outputs.env || 'preview' }}

Testing time

Let's try to push a new commit to your master branch, GitHub Action will trigger the pipeline and deploy to Vercel production. GitHub Action trigger production deployment

GitHub Action trigger production deployment

This is your time. Let's try to push a new commit to develop and see the preview action will be triggered.

Conclusion

GitHub Action is a new modern CI/CD provider which can be easy to integrate with Vercel. If your applications need a custom build and deploy steps, this part is suitable for your cases.