How to deploy a Ploof Studio site to Vercel

Vercel via GitHub is the path the deploy dialog marks as recommended. It splits the work between two accounts you own. GitHub holds your site’s files. Vercel reads them from GitHub and serves them. Ploof Studio sits only on the GitHub side, where it creates the repository and pushes your changes.

Because every Ploof Studio project is plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, Vercel has nothing to build. It takes the files as they are and puts them online.

1. Open Deploy and pick Vercel, via GitHub

   In your project, select Deploy at the right end of the preview toolbar, then pick Vercel, via GitHub.

2. Connect GitHub

   Select Connect GitHub. Ploof Studio shows a short code. Select Copy code and open GitHub, paste the code on the GitHub page that opens, and select Authorize. GitHub asks to let Ploof Studio reach your repositories, and Ploof Studio only changes the ones it creates.

3. Create a repository

   Ploof Studio suggests a repository name from your project. Keep it or type your own. Then choose who can see the code. Public works with GitHub Pages too. Private keeps it to you. Select Create, and Ploof Studio saves your site on GitHub.

4. Publish on Vercel

   Select Import on Vercel. It opens Vercel’s import page for your new repository. Sign in to Vercel with your own account and select Deploy. This is the one step that happens outside Ploof Studio, because Ploof Studio has no Vercel access.

   Back in the dialog, Ploof Studio shows that Vercel is publishing, which usually takes under a minute, and then the link to your live site.

Keep shaping the site in Ploof Studio. When you open Deploy again, it tells you whether GitHub has the latest version. If not, select Push latest changes. Ploof Studio commits the new files to the same repository, Vercel sees the push, and your site updates.

Once the site is live, select Add your own domain. Ploof Studio suggests names that fit your project and checks which are free on Vercel and Cloudflare, with prices for the first year. You buy the domain on your own account. Then Connect a domain shows four steps.

• Add the domain to your Vercel project, under Domains.
• Copy the records Vercel shows. They are made for your project, so Ploof Studio never prints values of its own. If you bought the domain on Vercel, Vercel sets the records for you.
• Add them where you bought the domain, and delete any other A, AAAA or CNAME record with the same name.
• Wait for Vercel to show Valid Configuration. It turns on HTTPS for you.

On Cloudflare, set those records to DNS only, because the proxy blocks the certificate.

If you want free hosting straight from your repository, the GitHub Pages guide covers it. GitHub Pages needs a public repository. If you want no GitHub at all, Download ZIP saves the whole site as one file you can drop on Vercel or upload to any host.