Frontend Deployments

This document outlines the process for deploying Unkey's frontend applications using Vercel.

Overview

Unkey's frontend applications are deployed through Vercel's platform, which provides automated builds, previews, and deployments. The deployment process is designed to be automatic and requires minimal manual intervention.

Frontend Applications

Unkey has several frontend applications deployed via Vercel:

Dashboard: The main user interface for managing Unkey resources
Landing Page (www): The public-facing marketing website
Documentation: The user and developer documentation site
Portal (upcoming): The customer portal application

While these applications may be in different repositories, they all follow the same deployment pattern on Vercel.

Deployment Process

Production Deployments

Production deployments are automatically triggered when:

Code is pushed directly to the main branch
A pull request is merged into the main branch

The deployment process follows these steps:

Code changes are merged to main
Vercel automatically detects the change and starts the build process
The application is built according to its build configuration
Once the build succeeds, the new version is deployed to production
No manual approval steps are required

Preview Deployments

Preview deployments are automatically created for every pull request:

When a pull request is opened, Vercel creates a preview deployment
Each commit to the PR triggers a new preview build
Vercel provides a unique URL for each preview deployment
Team members can visit this URL to review and test changes before merging
Preview deployments are useful for:
- Visual verification of changes
- Sharing with stakeholders for feedback
- Testing functionality in an isolated environment

Rollback Process

If issues are discovered after a deployment, you can roll back to a previous version:

Access the Vercel dashboard for the specific project
Navigate to the "Deployments" section
Find the previous successful deployment you want to roll back to
Click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to that deployment
Select "Roll back" to make that version live again

Best Practices

Test thoroughly in preview deployments before merging to main
Coordinate frontend and API deployments when changes depend on each other
Verify critical user flows after each production deployment
Document significant changes in PR descriptions for better tracking