Getting Started

Install

bash

npm i -g vercel

Authenticate — vercel login (opens browser). For CI, use VERCEL_TOKEN env var instead.
Check your team — vercel whoami to see current team. vercel teams switch to change. Linking on the wrong team is a common mistake.
Link your project — vercel link (single project) or vercel link --repo (monorepo with multiple projects or non-root directories). Creates .vercel/.
Pull env vars — vercel pull downloads project settings and env vars to .env.local.
Dev or deploy — vercel dev (local server) or vercel --prod (production deploy).

Commands must be run from the directory containing .vercel/ or a subdirectory of it.

.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.

When something goes wrong, check how things are linked first — look at .vercel/ and whether it's project.json or repo.json.