Build and deploy

From laptop to URL

Shipping is a two-command story you can rehearse locally:

next build   # compile + prerender static pages + print the route table
next start   # run the production server

next build is the moment everything from Unit 7 happens: static pages render to HTML, generateStaticParams lists expand, and the route table prints with its static/dynamic markers. Read that table before every deploy. It is the truth about what you built.

In production you almost never run next start by hand. A hosting platform does it for you.

The Vercel-style workflow

Platforms like Vercel (made by the Next.js team), Netlify, and others all follow the same git-driven loop:

1. Push to GitHub. Your repo is connected to the platform.
2. The platform builds. It runs next build on its servers with the environment variables you configured in its dashboard, not your .env.local, which stays on your machine and out of git.
3. It deploys atomically. The new version goes live at your URL only when the build succeeds. Pull requests even get their own preview URLs.

Two habits that save real pain: set env vars in the platform dashboard before building (remember, NEXT_PUBLIC_* is inlined at build time), and never commit .env.local.