Now liveThe Skillselion MCP - thousands of ranked skills, loaded into your agent mid-task. No install.Get it →
vercel avatar

Bootstrap

  • 393 installs
  • 241 repo stars
  • Updated August 5, 2026
  • vercel/vercel-plugin

This is a copy of bootstrap by vercel-labs - installs and ranking accrue to the original listing.

bootstrap is a Vercel plugin skill that orchestrates project setup—linking, env provisioning, env pulls, and first-run database commands—for developers who onboard repos with Vercel-managed integrations.

About

bootstrap is a project bootstrapping orchestrator skill in vercel/vercel-plugin for repositories tied to Vercel-linked resources. It activates when setting up or repairing a repo so linking, environment provisioning, vercel env pull, and first-run db/dev commands happen in the correct safe order. Path patterns include .env.example, drizzle.config.*, prisma schemas, package.json, and setup docs. The skill coordinates Vercel databases, auth providers, and managed integrations referenced in official Vercel and Next.js getting-started documentation. Developers reach for bootstrap after cloning a Vercel-backed Next.js app, when .env files are missing, or when Drizzle or Prisma migrations fail because env vars were never pulled. Priority metadata ranks it high for setup workflows, reducing mis-ordered manual steps that break local dev or staging databases.

  • bootstrap

Bootstrap by the numbers

  • 393 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel/vercel-plugin --skill bootstrap

Add your badge

Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.

Listed on Skillselion
Installs393
repo stars241
Last updatedAugust 5, 2026
Repositoryvercel/vercel-plugin

How do you bootstrap a Vercel-linked Next.js repo locally?

Use bootstrap for development tasks

Who is it for?

Full-stack developers onboarding Vercel-hosted Next.js repos with Drizzle, Prisma, auth, or managed database integrations.

Skip if: Projects with no Vercel dependency, pure static sites without env secrets, or teams that already have automated setup scripts covering the same steps.

When should I use this skill?

User clones a Vercel repo, missing .env blocks local dev, or asks to link Vercel resources and run first-time db setup

What you get

Linked Vercel project, populated .env files, provisioned integrations, and successful first-run database or dev server commands

  • configured .env files
  • linked Vercel project
  • initialized local database

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Project Bootstrap Orchestrator

Execute bootstrap in strict order. Do not run migrations or development server until project linking and environment verification are complete.

Rules

  • Do not run db:push, db:migrate, db:seed, or dev until Vercel linking is complete and env keys are verified.
  • Prefer Vercel-managed provisioning (vercel integration ...) for shared resources.
  • Use provider CLIs only as fallback when Vercel integration flow is unavailable.
  • Never echo secret values in terminal output, logs, or summaries.

Preflight

1. Confirm Vercel CLI is installed and authenticated.

vercel --version
vercel whoami

2. Confirm repo linkage by checking .vercel/project.json. 3. If not linked, inspect available teams/projects before asking the user to choose:

vercel teams ls
vercel projects ls --scope <team>
vercel link --yes --scope <team> --project <project>

4. Find the env template in priority order: .env.example, .env.sample, .env.template. 5. Create local env file if missing:

cp .env.example .env.local

Resource Setup: Postgres

Preferred path (Vercel-managed Neon)

1. Read integration setup guidance:

vercel integration guide neon

2. Add Neon integration to the Vercel scope:

vercel integration add neon --scope <team>

3. Verify expected environment variable names exist in Vercel and pull locally:

vercel env ls
vercel env pull .env.local --yes

Fallback path 1 (Dashboard)

1. Provision Neon through the Vercel dashboard integration UI. 2. Re-run vercel env pull .env.local --yes.

Fallback path 2 (Neon CLI)

Use Neon CLI only when Vercel-managed provisioning is unavailable. After creating resources, add required env vars in Vercel and pull again.

AUTH_SECRET Generation

Generate a high-entropy secret without printing it, then store it in Vercel and refresh local env:

AUTH_SECRET="$(node -e "console.log(require('node:crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('base64url'))")"
printf "%s" "$AUTH_SECRET" | vercel env add AUTH_SECRET development preview production
unset AUTH_SECRET
vercel env pull .env.local --yes

Env Verification

Compare required keys from template file against .env.local keys (names only, never values):

template_file=""
for candidate in .env.example .env.sample .env.template; do
  if [ -f "$candidate" ]; then
    template_file="$candidate"
    break
  fi
done

comm -23 \
  <(grep -E '^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*=' "$template_file" | cut -d '=' -f 1 | sort -u) \
  <(grep -E '^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*=' .env.local | cut -d '=' -f 1 | sort -u)

Proceed only when missing key list is empty.

App Setup

After linkage + env verification:

npm run db:push
npm run db:seed
npm run dev

Use the repository package manager (npm, pnpm, bun, or yarn) and run only scripts that exist in package.json.

UI Baseline for Next.js + shadcn Projects

After linkage and env verification, establish the UI foundation before feature work: 1. Add a baseline primitive set: npx shadcn@latest add button card input label textarea select switch tabs dialog alert-dialog sheet dropdown-menu badge separator skeleton table 2. Apply the Geist font fix in layout.tsx and globals.css. 3. Confirm the app shell uses bg-background text-foreground. 4. Default to dark mode for product, admin, and AI apps unless the repo is clearly marketing-first.

Bootstrap Verification

Confirm each checkpoint:

  • vercel whoami succeeds.
  • .vercel/project.json exists and matches chosen project.
  • Postgres integration path completed (Vercel integration, dashboard, or provider CLI fallback).
  • vercel env pull .env.local --yes succeeds.
  • Required env key diff is empty.
  • Database command status is recorded (db:push, db:seed, db:migrate, db:generate as applicable).
  • dev command starts without immediate config/auth/env failure.

If verification fails, stop and report exact failing step plus remediation.

Summary Format

Return a final bootstrap summary in this format:

## Bootstrap Result
- **Linked Project**: <team>/<project>
- **Resource Path**: vercel-integration-neon | dashboard-neon | neon-cli
- **Env Keys**: <count> required, <count> present, <count> missing
- **Secrets**: AUTH_SECRET set in Vercel (value never shown)
- **Migration Status**: not-run | success | failed (<step>)
- **Dev Result**: not-run | started | failed

Bootstrap Next Steps

  • If env keys are still missing, add the missing keys in Vercel and re-run vercel env pull .env.local --yes.
  • If DB commands fail, fix connectivity/schema issues and re-run only the failed db step.
  • If dev fails, resolve runtime errors, then restart with your package manager's run dev.

next-forge Projects

If the project was scaffolded with npx next-forge init (detected by pnpm-workspace.yaml + packages/auth + packages/database + @repo/* imports):

1. Env files are per-app (apps/app/.env.local, apps/web/.env.local, apps/api/.env.local) plus packages/database/.env. 2. Run pnpm migrate (not db:push) — it runs prisma format + prisma generate + prisma db push. 3. Minimum env vars: DATABASE_URL, CLERK_SECRET_KEY, NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY, NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL, NEXT_PUBLIC_WEB_URL, NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL. 4. Optional services (Stripe, Resend, PostHog, etc.) can be skipped initially — but remove their @repo/* imports from app env.ts files to avoid validation errors. 5. Deploy as 3 separate Vercel projects with root directories apps/app, apps/api, apps/web.

=> skill: next-forge — Full next-forge monorepo guide

Related skills

FAQ

When should bootstrap run on a Vercel project?

bootstrap runs when setting up or repairing a repository that depends on Vercel-linked databases, auth, or managed integrations, ensuring linking, env provisioning, and first-run db commands occur in safe order.

Which files trigger bootstrap detection?

bootstrap matches .env.example, .env.sample, drizzle.config.*, prisma configs, package.json, README setup sections, and docs/**/setup* paths to identify repos needing Vercel resource linking.

Backend & APIsbackendintegrations

This week in AI coding

Five minutes, every Monday - the tools, releases and tactics for developers.

unsubscribe anytime.