Execute analyze, plan, and execute Vercel SDK upgrades with breaking change detection.
Use when upgrading Vercel SDK versions, detecting deprecations,
or migrating to new API versions.
Trigger with phrases like "upgrade vercel", "vercel migration",
"vercel breaking changes", "update vercel SDK", "analyze vercel version".
# Current CLI version
vercel --version
# Current Node.js runtime on Vercel
cat package.json | jq '.engines.node'
# Or check vercel.json
cat vercel.json | jq '.functions'
# Check for available CLI updates
npm outdated -g vercel
# Check framework version
npm ls next react
Step 2: Upgrade Vercel CLI
# Upgrade to latest
npm install -g vercel@latest
# Or specific version
npm install -g vercel@39
# Verify
vercel --version
CLI breaking changes to watch for:
v28+: vercel env pull output format changed
v32+: vercel dev uses new function runtime
v37+: vercel.jsonbuilds property deprecated in favor of framework detection
Step 3: Upgrade Node.js Runtime
// package.json — specify the Node.js version
{
"engines": {
"node": "20.x"
}
}
Available runtimes on Vercel:
Runtime
Status
EOL
Node.js 18.x
Supported
April 2025
Node.js 20.x
Active LTS (recommended)
April 2026
Node.js 22.x
Current
October 2027
# Test locally with the target Node version first
nvm use 20
npm test
npm run build
Step 4: Upgrade Next.js on Vercel
# Use the Next.js upgrade codemod
npx @next/codemod@latest upgrade
# Or manual upgrade
npm install next@latest react@latest react-dom@latest
# Check for breaking changes
npx @next/codemod --dry-run
14 → 15: fetch no longer cached by default, cookies() is async, NextRequest.geo removed (use geolocation() from @vercel/functions)
vercel.json changes: rewrites/redirects in next.config.js take precedence over vercel.json
Step 5: Test in Preview Before Production
# Create a branch for the upgrade
git checkout -b upgrade/vercel-cli-39
# Make changes and push
git add -A && git commit -m "chore: upgrade vercel CLI and Node.js 20"
git push -u origin upgrade/vercel-cli-39
# Vercel auto-deploys a preview — test it
vercel ls | head -3
curl -s https://my-app-git-upgrade-vercel-cli-39-team.vercel.app/api/health
# Run full test suite against preview
npm test -- --env=preview
Step 6: Rollback Strategy
# If the upgrade breaks production — instant rollback
vercel rollback
# Pin to a specific CLI version in CI
# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
# - run: npm install -g vercel@38 # pin to known good version
# Revert Node.js runtime
# Change engines.node back in package.json
# Push and redeploy
