Véla public website

Marketing and compliance pages for the Vela app: Next.js 15 (App Router), Tailwind, Vercel. Design tokens align with docs/UIUX/Vela_FlutterFlow_Spec.md in the app repo.

Repository: github.com/growthwise68/vela-website

Quick start

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000. Routes: /, /privacy, /terms, /support.

Only public-facing assets go in /public — everything there is live on velaforcrew.com. Internal docs and notes belong at the repo root instead.

Environment

Variable	Purpose
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL	Canonical site URL for sitemap.xml, robots.txt, and metadataBase. Default in code is https://vela-website-lilac.vercel.app. Override in Vercel when you add a custom domain.
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPPORT_EMAIL	Optional until you are ready. Public support inbox (e.g. support@yourdomain...). Shown on /support when set; use the same address in App Store Connect / Play. It is fine to finalize the site URL first, then add this when the public support address is live.

Production domain (stable): https://vela-website-lilac.vercel.app — use this in store and social “website” fields. A deployment URL (e.g. vela-website-7xc4227i3-….vercel.app) is per-build; it is not a good canonical link.

Suggested order: deploy → confirm NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL in Vercel matches the stable domain (optional, code already defaults correctly) → custom domain when ready → add NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPPORT_EMAIL and store listings.

Copy .env.example to .env.local for local dev if you want to override defaults.

Deploy (Vercel — free Hobby plan)

Vercel’s Hobby plan is free for personal and small projects (fair-use limits on build minutes and team size; see vercel.com/pricing). You get HTTPS, preview URLs on every git push, and a production URL like https://<project-name>.vercel.app with no paid domain required.

Prerequisites

• This folder is a Next.js app (already configured).
• Code must live in a Git repo on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket (Vercel deploys from git).

If you are setting up GitHub for the first time (this folder is already committed locally):

1. On github.com/new, create a new repository:
   • Choose a name (e.g. vela-website).
   • Leave it empty: do not add a README, .gitignore, or license (avoids merge conflicts).
2. In a terminal, from this website folder, run (replace USER and REPO with yours):

git remote add origin https://github.com/USER/REPO.git
git push -u origin main

Use SSH if you use SSH keys: git remote add origin [email protected]:USER/REPO.git

If you need to fix the author on the first commit (name/email for GitHub), run git config user.name / user.email in this repo, then git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit.

---

If this folder had no git history yet, you would run:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Vela website"

…then add origin and git push as above.

Step-by-step: first deploy

1. Sign up at vercel.com (click Sign Up and use Continue with GitHub so your repos connect easily).
2. In the Vercel dashboard, click Add New… → Project (or Import).
3. Import the GitHub repository that contains this website code.
4. Vercel usually detects Next.js automatically. Defaults should be:
   • Framework Preset: Next.js
   • Root Directory:
     • If the repo’s root is this website folder, leave empty (.) or the default.
     • If the site lives in a subfolder of a monorepo, set Root Directory to that folder (e.g. website).
   • Build Command: next build (default)
   • Output: handled by Next.js (no change needed)
5. Environment variables (before the first Production deploy, or add right after in Settings → Environment Variables):
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL = https://<your-project-name>.vercel.app (use the real URL Vercel will show; you can redeploy after the first deploy to fix the exact name).
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPPORT_EMAIL = your public support email (optional but needed for a visible address on /support).
   • Apply to Production (and Preview if you want previews to match).
6. Click Deploy. Wait for the build to finish.
7. Open the Visit / production URL. Test /, /privacy, /terms, /support.

After the first successful deploy: copy the exact production URL from the project (e.g. Settings → Domains or the top of the Deployments page). If your NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL was a guess, set it to that exact https://... value and run Redeploy (Deployments → … on latest → Redeploy) so sitemap.xml and robots.txt use the right base.

Later: custom domain (optional, usually paid)

Buy a domain from a registrar (Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains, etc.), then in Vercel: Project → Settings → Domains → add the domain and follow the DNS records Vercel shows. Update NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL to https://yourdomain.com and update App Store / Play / Facebook to the new URLs.

If something fails

• Build error: run npm run build locally in this folder; fix any errors, commit, push — Vercel will rebuild.
• Wrong site / empty project: check Root Directory matches where package.json lives.
• Env not applied: variable names must be exact; redeploy after changing env.

Stage 4–5: Paste production URLs into App Store Connect, Google Play, and the Facebook Page; add custom domain in Vercel when you have one, then update env + consoles (see vela_website_planning.md).

Status vs master plan

Stage	State
0 Planning	vela_website_planning.md
1 IA / design	Sitemap: home, privacy, terms, support; Vela theme applied
2 Build MVP	This codebase on Vercel-ready Next.js
3 Legal	Draft pages — counsel review before calling production-ready
4 Stores / Meta	Manual — set URLs in consoles
5 Custom domain	After *.vercel.app is live

---

App source and detailed docs: ../Downloaded FF Files/crew-bid-zh19l5 (or your canonical Vela app path).