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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, admin panel enabled):

# Infrastructure
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
# Optional (non-AWS S3-compatible providers):
# S3_ENDPOINT=https://...
# S3_FORCE_PATH_STYLE=true

# Auth (required for the admin panel)
BASE_URL=https://your-app.vercel.app
AUTH_SECRET=...
ADMIN_EMAILS=you@example.com  # comma-separated; admins manage TTS + features in-app

# First-boot seed for the TTS shared provider (optional; manage in-app afterwards)
API_KEY=your_replicate_key
# API_BASE only needed for OpenAI-compatible self-hosted providers
Env vars vs. admin panel (important for Vercel)

API_KEY / API_BASE are one-shot bootstrap seeds on first deploy. After boot, manage providers and site features in Settings → Admin. Changes there apply on refresh without a redeploy. See Admin Panel.

After the first successful deploy and admin login, open Settings → Admin and configure:

  • Shared providers: create/edit your provider key(s) here (encrypted at rest).
  • Site features:
    • enableDocxConversion=false on Vercel (soffice unavailable).
    • enableDestructiveDeleteActions=false for safer public deployments.
    • enableTtsProvidersTab=false if you want shared-provider-only UX.
    • enableUserSignups=true unless you explicitly want an invite-only deployment.
    • restrictUserApiKeys=true to block user BYOK through the hosted server.
    • defaultTtsProvider=replicate (or your preferred shared slug).
    • showAllProviderModels=false if you want users locked to each provider's default model.
    • enableAudiobookExport=true.
    • enableWordHighlight=false unless your timestamp stack is configured.

3. Legacy first-boot seed (optional)​

If you must pre-seed site features via environment variables, the legacy NEXT_PUBLIC_* seeds are still supported on first boot only. Prefer the admin panel for ongoing management.

See Environment Variables for the complete legacy seed list.

Auth recommendation

For internet-exposed Vercel deployments, set both BASE_URL and AUTH_SECRET — they are also required for the admin panel and for encrypting admin-stored TTS credentials. Running without auth is possible, but not recommended for public environments.

Rotating AUTH_SECRET invalidates admin-stored keys

Admin-managed TTS provider keys are encrypted with a key derived from AUTH_SECRET. If you rotate AUTH_SECRET after the first deploy, you must re-enter each admin shared provider's API key from the UI.

tip

For all variables and defaults, see Environment Variables.

4. Database and data migrations​

Vercel deployments do not run scripts/openreader-entrypoint.mjs, so automatic startup migrations do not run there.

  • Run pnpm migrate in a controlled environment to apply Drizzle schema migrations to your Postgres DB.
  • Run pnpm migrate-fs only when migrating legacy local filesystem data (docstore/documents_v1, docstore/audiobooks_v1) into object storage + DB rows. Fresh Vercel deployments usually do not need this.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Runtime expectations and caveats​

  • Audiobook APIs require S3 configuration; otherwise they return 503.
  • For production Vercel deploys, use POSTGRES_URL instead of SQLite.

8. 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.