A community board built on Meith, deployed as Vercel functions.
The deployment template requests Neon PostgreSQL, Upstash Redis, Vercel Blob and Resend. Keep access to these service accounts and review their current limits and pricing.
Generate two independent secrets:
openssl rand -hex 32
openssl rand -hex 32Use them for AUTH_SECRET and CRON_SECRET. Each must be at least 32 characters. Keep a recovery copy of the original AUTH_SECRET; it seals stored secrets.
The platform derives the following defaults when you have not supplied explicit overrides:
DATA_SOURCE=postgres
QUEUE_DRIVER=postgres
CACHE_DRIVER=redis
FILESTORE_DRIVER=blob
MAIL_DRIVER=http| Service value | Meith uses it for |
|---|---|
DATABASE_URL |
Runtime database connection |
DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED, falling back to POSTGRES_URL_NON_POOLING |
DIRECT_DATABASE_URL for migrations and installer locks |
KV_URL |
REDIS_URL; the Redis protocol connection, not the HTTP REST endpoint |
BLOB_STORE_ID |
Upload storage authenticated through the deployment identity |
RESEND_API_KEY, RESEND_EMAIL_DOMAIN |
HTTP mail credentials and sender |
If a required service configuration is missing, Meith refuses to boot rather than guess. Inspect the named variables in the deployment log. See Vercel configuration for explicit overrides.
The build command is meith migrate && forum-web build --at-root. It applies core migrations before building. Keep preview deployments on a separate database if they must not migrate production.
When the deployment succeeds, open /install. Unlock with AUTH_SECRET, confirm the permanent public board address, and create the first administrator. Installation seals the route; /install then returns 404.
Mail needs no variables after the deploy when the Resend integration supplies both RESEND_API_KEY and RESEND_EMAIL_DOMAIN. The default sender is noreply@ followed by that domain. Verify the sending domain with Resend and send a test from Admin → Settings → Mail.
To send from a different address, set MAIL_FROM and redeploy. The address must be allowed by your provider. Missing sender configuration can leave mail on the log driver, which delivers nothing.
For another HTTP provider, set MAIL_DRIVER=http, MAIL_HTTP_ENDPOINT, MAIL_HTTP_TOKEN and MAIL_FROM; endpoint and token must be supplied together. See Email configuration.
vercel.json calls /api/system/tick on 0 3 * * *: once a day. That cadence can delay notifications, search indexing and queued work. Time-sensitive plugin work can miss its useful delivery window.
Choose a cadence supported by your current plan, or use an external scheduler authenticated with an independently generated TICK_SECRET. The endpoint accepts CRON_SECRET or TICK_SECRET. A paid plan may provide more scheduling options; check Vercel cron limits.
The tick declares maxDuration = 300. Check the project's Fluid Compute setting and function duration limit before deploying; an unsupported duration can fail deployment. Upload limits also come from the platform, regardless of the board's attachment settings.
Inspect task results, not only HTTP status: a tick can return 200 with ok: false and failed tasks in ran. Follow Scheduled tasks and test real posting, uploads and email before inviting members.
.github/workflows/update.yml opens a weekly update pull request and supports Run workflow. Enable Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests under Settings → Actions → General.
Read the release notes and take a backup before merging. Vercel redeploys the merged code and applies core migrations during the build. Apply plugin migrations with the operator CLI using the deployment's environment. Migrations are forward-only.
To prepare the update locally:
npx create-meith@latest updateThe updater also reconciles supported deployment files. Its package update keeps Meith and Next.js aligned:
npm install --save-exact @meith/web@latest @meith/cli@latest @meith/theme-default@latest
npm install --save-exact next@$(node -p "require('./node_modules/@meith/web/package.json').dependencies.next")See Upgrade Meith for validation and recovery.
Run backups from a checkout with the correct hosted database credentials and PostgreSQL tools. Set FILESTORE_DRIVER=blob and a store's BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN; a local CLI cannot use the deployment's identity. Blob backups include uploads by default.
With that environment selected and a writable output directory:
npm run meith -- backup --out ./board-backup.tar.gz --uploads includeCheck the result and bundle manifest. Preserve the original AUTH_SECRET separately. Restore into an empty destination and verify attachments and sign-in before switching traffic or deleting the old services. Follow Move away from Vercel for the complete procedure.