Skip to Content
InstallationVercel + Neon Demo

Vercel + Neon Demo

SeqDesk’s public demo can run fully on Vercel when the app uses PostgreSQL via Neon. The landing page and the demo app are separate Vercel projects:

  • seqdesk.com serves the marketing/docs site.
  • demo.seqdesk.com serves the SeqDesk app.

1. Create The Neon Database

Create a Neon project and copy:

  • The pooled connection string for DATABASE_URL
  • The direct connection string for DIRECT_URL

Both should point at the same database and schema.

2. Configure The Demo Project In Vercel

Import the hzi-bifo/SeqDesk repository and set these environment variables:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
DIRECT_URL=postgresql://...
NEXTAUTH_URL=https://demo.seqdesk.com
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=replace-with-a-random-secret
SEQDESK_ENABLE_PUBLIC_DEMO=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_SEQDESK_ENABLE_PUBLIC_DEMO=true
CRON_SECRET=replace-with-a-random-secret

Notes:

  • DATABASE_URL is the runtime connection string used by the app.
  • DIRECT_URL is used for Prisma migrations during build and deploy.
  • CRON_SECRET protects the Vercel cron endpoint used by /api/demo/cleanup.
  • NEXTAUTH_SECRET and CRON_SECRET should be generated independently.

3. Set The Vercel Build Command

SeqDesk runs Prisma client generation during the build script automatically, but the demo deployment should also apply migrations before the Next.js build. Set the project build command in Vercel to:

npm run db:migrate:deploy && npm run build

This uses DIRECT_URL for prisma migrate deploy and then runs the normal app build.

4. Assign The Demo Domain

Attach demo.seqdesk.com to the demo project in Vercel and create the DNS record requested by Vercel, usually:

Type: CNAME
Name: demo
Value: cname.vercel-dns.com

Use the exact target Vercel shows for your project if it differs.

5. Point The Landing Page At The Demo

In the SeqDesk.com Vercel project, set:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SEQDESK_DEMO_URL=https://demo.seqdesk.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=https://www.seqdesk.com

Redeploy the landing page after updating these values.

Preview Deployments

Keep previews simple:

  • Reuse one shared non-production Neon database.
  • Set both DATABASE_URL and DIRECT_URL in the Preview environment.
  • Avoid per-preview branching until you need isolated data.

Existing SQLite Installs

SQLite is no longer supported by current SeqDesk releases. Existing SQLite instances must stay on the last SQLite-compatible release until they are migrated manually to PostgreSQL.