Production deployment overview

THE HCLAB targets Vercel for hosting with a managed PostgreSQL provider (Neon, Vercel Postgres, Supabase, etc.).

Deployment checklist

1. Provision PostgreSQL and note the connection string
2. Set environment variables in Vercel
3. Run npx prisma db push against production DATABASE_URL
4. Optionally run npm run db:seed for initial categories and admin user
5. Connect the GitHub repo to Vercel and deploy
6. Configure custom domain and update NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL
7. Wire Stripe webhooks and email provider
8. Verify auth, CMS, and research flows

Architecture

Browser → Vercel (Next.js 16) → PostgreSQL
                ↓
         Stripe / Resend / S3 / OpenAI (optional)
                ↓
         Cron routes (/api/cron/*)

What differs from local

Concern	Local	Production
Database	Local Postgres	Managed Postgres
Email	Console logs	Resend (or provider)
Stripe	Test keys + CLI	Live keys + dashboard webhook
Cron	Manual HTTP calls	Vercel Cron with CRON_SECRET
Maintenance	Usually off	MAINTENANCE_MODE=true when needed

Read next

• Vercel — project setup and build
• Production environment — required env vars
• Post-deploy verification — smoke tests