VoltaMail

Deployment Guide

Prerequisites

• Neon connection string (already wired into .env files).
• Vercel projects for both the web app and API (Hobby tier is fine while usage stays light).
• pnpm installed locally.

Environment Variables

Populate the following variables in both Vercel projects (web + API):

• DATABASE_URL (Neon pooled connection string; store only in Vercel/secret manager)
• NEXTAUTH_SECRET
• NEXTAUTH_URL
• API_BASE_URL
• NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL (web only, points to the API’s /api prefix)
• Google OAuth credentials (GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET, GOOGLE_API_KEY)
• Gmail OAuth credentials (GMAIL_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID, GMAIL_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, GMAIL_OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI)
• Any AI provider keys you intend to use (OPENROUTER_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY)
• TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY

Web App (Next.js)

1. In Vercel, create a new project pointing to apps/web as the root directory.
2. Build command: pnpm --filter @email-automation/web build
3. Install command: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
4. Output: .next
5. Configure domains (e.g. app.yourdomain.com) and ensure NEXTAUTH_URL matches the deployed URL.

API (NestJS on Vercel)

1. Create a second Vercel project pointing to apps/api.
2. Install command: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
3. Build command: pnpm --filter @email-automation/api build
4. Vercel automatically detects the api/ directory; the new api/index.mjs file wraps the NestJS express instance so requests to /api/* run through the serverless handler.
5. Set API_BASE_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL in the web project to the deployed API URL (e.g. https://voltamail-api.vercel.app/api).
6. After the first deploy, run Prisma migrations via pnpm --filter @email-automation/database db:migrate locally (or wire a GitHub Action) pointing at the Neon database to keep schemas in sync.

Local Development

1. Copy .env.example to .env (if not already) and ensure the Neon DATABASE_URL is present.
2. Start Postgres is no longer required locally; Prisma will connect directly to Neon.
3. Run pnpm install, then pnpm dev for the monorepo experience, or target individual apps with pnpm --filter @email-automation/web dev / pnpm --filter @email-automation/api dev.

VoltaMail