Import a Git repository

The easiest way to get a project on Vercel is to import it from GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket through the dashboard. Vercel connects to the repository, creates a project, and runs the first build.

Click Add New and then Project, pick the field-notes repository, and stop. Before you press Deploy, there are two decisions to get right.

Who owns the project

The first one is the scope: your personal account or a team. This is not a cosmetic choice. Ownership decides who pays the bill, who manages domains and secrets, who can create tokens, and who can recover the project if something goes wrong.

My advice is to pick the scope that will still be right in a year. Don’t import into whatever account you happen to be logged into.

Check the production branch too. By default Vercel treats main as production, and every push to it becomes a live release. Make sure that matches how you work before you turn on automatic deployments.

What Vercel detected

The second decision is the build configuration. Vercel looks at the repository and fills in the framework preset, root directory, install command, build command, and output directory. For Field Notes you should see something like this:

Framework Preset:  Next.js
Root Directory:    ./
Install Command:   npm install
Build Command:     next build
Output Directory:  Next.js default

Detection is usually right. Still, read every line and compare it with package.json. Detection is evidence, not a reason to skip the review.

The root directory matters most in a monorepo. If your app lives in apps/web, that is the folder Vercel must build. Leave it at ./ and the build runs against the wrong package.json.

When the first build fails

Write the detected settings down before you deploy. If the build fails, you compare them with the clean-clone build from the previous lesson: same root, same install output, same Node.js version, same build-time variables.

Then change one thing and redeploy. If you change four dashboard fields at once and the build goes green, you don’t know which one fixed it. Worse, you may have introduced an override you don’t need.

Try this on your own project: import Field Notes, pause on the configuration screen, and check every detected setting against package.json and the repository layout before the first deploy.