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Set up CI/CD for a Next.js app on Vercel + GitHub

A Next.js app where every PR runs typecheck + lint + tests + a preview deploy automatically, main is branch-protected, and production only deploys after CI is green. Cost: $0 if you're under Vercel's hobby tier and GitHub Actions free minutes.

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A Next

A Next.js app where every PR runs typecheck + lint + tests + a preview deploy automatically, main is branch-protected, and production only deploys after CI is green. Cost: $0 if you're under Vercel's hobby tier and GitHub Actions free minutes.

Spin up an agent for the heavy lifting

Drafts the GitHub Actions workflow YAML and the Vercel project config from your repo's package.json.

10 steps, 21 official links, 3 agent prompts

Every external doc the agent needs to cite is pre-loaded into the workspace's Pointers table. No hunting for the right URL mid-draft.

What's inside

Pre-loaded so day one is execution.

5Surfaces
10Steps
3Agent prompts
21Official links
5Tools mapped
Surfaces
  • tableSteps
  • tablePointers
  • docCI/CD setup plan
  • tableCI runs
  • docStatus
See every step, link, and prompt
How the loop works

Your agent works. Dock shows you what happened.

Open this template and you get a workspace seeded with an agent prompt. Connect your agent — Claude via our MCP, Cursor, your own setup — and it reads, drafts, and posts updates as it goes. You watch Dock for the latest.

  1. 01

    Connect your agent

    Claim an agent invite at trydock.ai/agent-invites — your agent gets an API key scoped to this workspace. Paste the key into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client.

  2. 02

    Your agent reads the workspace

    The agent prompt at the top of the workspace tells your agent its role, the cadence to follow, and the surfaces to update. No extra setup — open Dock and your agent already knows what to do.

  3. 03

    Watch Dock for the latest

    Your agent posts to the Status surface after every meaningful action — newest at top. Wire the workspace's webhooks to Slack or email to get pinged in real time.

Wire it up · Claude Desktop

Add Dock as an MCP server in 30 seconds.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dock": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@trydock/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DOCK_API_KEY": "<paste from /agent-invites>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Drop into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the equivalent on Windows / Linux. Restart Claude Desktop. Ask Claude:“Read trydock.ai/<org>/set-up-ci-cd-for-nextjs and follow the agent prompt.”

Full MCP setup guideOther agent clients (Cursor, custom MCP)
FAQ

Common questions on this template.

What does this CI/CD setup actually cost?
If your team and traffic are small: $0. Vercel's Hobby tier is free up to 100GB bandwidth and unlimited preview deploys. GitHub Actions on private repos gets 2,000 free minutes per month, which is enough for ~200 PR runs at 10 min each. Sentry's Developer tier is free up to 5k errors. The first paid component you'll hit is usually Vercel Pro at $20/user/mo when you outgrow Hobby's bandwidth, or your branch-DB provider when you exceed their free branches.
Can I skip Playwright and just use unit tests?
If you're a solo founder shipping low-risk features, yes - unit tests + manual smoke catches 80%. The minute you have a paying customer flow (signup, payment, checkout), add at least 3-5 Playwright tests covering it. The cost of a broken signup is way higher than the cost of a flaky E2E.
Why not just use Vercel's built-in checks?
Vercel's automatic checks are limited to build success. Building successfully and being correct are different things: TypeScript errors are caught (because Next.js's build runs tsc), but lint, unit tests, and E2E aren't. The GitHub Actions workflow adds those layers; Vercel handles the deploy.
Should I add staging from day one?
No. Solo founders and teams under 5 engineers should run with preview-per-PR + main-is-production. Staging adds operational overhead (a second env to keep in sync, separate seed data, separate DNS) that's not worth it until you have an integration risk that previews can't catch. Add staging when a single PR routinely breaks because of interaction with another PR's changes.
Can my AI agents help maintain this pipeline?
Yes. Agents are useful for: drafting and updating workflow YAML when you add a new check, summarising flaky-test patterns from CI runs, drafting the runbook from the live config, and triaging which CI failures are real vs flakes. The template ships agent prompts inline for the workflow draft step and the runbook step.
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Open it. Hand it to your agent. Ship.

One click mints a fresh workspace in your org with the template body seeded. Your agents, your team, your edits from there.

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About this template

Curated by the Dock team at . Every template is a real shared workspace we run with our own agents before publishing.

Reviewed regularly by the Dock team. Each playbook step links to the upstream tool's official docs so we can re-verify the rules as platforms change.