Vercel Deployment

This guide covers deploying OpenReader to Vercel with external Postgres and S3-compatible object storage.

What works on Vercel

• Documents (PDF/EPUB/TXT/MD) work with POSTGRES_URL + external S3 storage.
• Audiobook routes work on Node.js serverless functions using ffmpeg-static.

DOCX Conversion Limitation

docx conversion requires soffice (LibreOffice), which is not available in a standard Vercel runtime.

1. Environment Variables

Recommended production setup (auth enabled):

API_BASE=https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai
API_KEY=your_deepinfra_key
POSTGRES_URL=postgres://...
USE_EMBEDDED_WEED_MINI=false
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
S3_BUCKET=...
S3_REGION=us-east-1
S3_PREFIX=openreader
BASE_URL=https://your-app.vercel.app
AUTH_SECRET=...
# Optional client/runtime feature defaults:
NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_DOCX_CONVERSION=false
NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_DESTRUCTIVE_DELETE_ACTIONS=false
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TTS_PROVIDER=deepinfra
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TTS_MODEL=hexgrad/Kokoro-82M
NEXT_PUBLIC_SHOW_ALL_DEEPINFRA_MODELS=false
NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_AUDIOBOOK_EXPORT=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_WORD_HIGHLIGHT=false
# Optional (non-AWS S3-compatible providers):
# S3_ENDPOINT=https://...
# S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE=true

Production Configuration & Feature Flags

We recommend setting these defaults for a production-like environment:

• NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_DOCX_CONVERSION=false: Disables DOCX upload (requires external tools anyway)
• NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_DESTRUCTIVE_DELETE_ACTIONS=false: Hides destructive "Delete All" actions
• NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TTS_PROVIDER=deepinfra: Points default TTS to a scalable provider
• NEXT_PUBLIC_DEFAULT_TTS_MODEL=hexgrad/Kokoro-82M: Uses a high-quality default model
• NEXT_PUBLIC_SHOW_ALL_DEEPINFRA_MODELS=false: Restricts usage to free models if no key is provided
• NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_AUDIOBOOK_EXPORT=true: (Optional) Controls audiobook export UI
• NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_WORD_HIGHLIGHT=false: (Optional) Controls word highlighting UI (requires timestamp backend)

Auth recommendation

For internet-exposed Vercel deployments, set both BASE_URL and AUTH_SECRET. Running without auth is possible, but not recommended for public environments.

tip

For all variables and defaults, see Environment Variables.

2. FFmpeg packaging in Vercel functions

ffmpeg-static binaries must be included in function traces. This repo already does that in next.config.ts via outputFileTracingIncludes for:

• /api/audiobook
• /api/audiobook/chapter
• /api/audiobook/status
• /api/whisper

info

serverExternalPackages should include ffmpeg-static so package paths resolve at runtime instead of being bundled into route output.

If you change route paths or split handlers, update outputFileTracingIncludes accordingly.

3. Function memory sizing

FFmpeg workloads benefit from more memory/CPU. This repo includes:

{
  "$schema": "https://openapi.vercel.sh/vercel.json",
  "functions": {
    "app/api/audiobook/route.ts": { "memory": 3009 },
    "app/api/whisper/route.ts": { "memory": 3009 }
  }
}

Adjust memory per route if your files are larger or your plan differs.

4. Runtime expectations and caveats

• Audiobook APIs require S3 configuration; otherwise they return 503.
• For production Vercel deploys, use POSTGRES_URL instead of SQLite.
• Filesystem-to-object-store migrations run via server scripts/entrypoint (scripts/migrate-fs-v2.mjs), not API routes.
• Vercel deployments do not run scripts/openreader-entrypoint.mjs, so run pnpm migrate-fs in a controlled environment when migrating legacy filesystem data.

5. Smoke test after deploy

1. Upload and read a PDF/EPUB document.
2. Confirm sync/blob fetch works across refreshes/devices.
3. Generate at least one audiobook chapter and play/download it.
4. If using word highlighting, verify timestamps are produced and rendered.