Check Vercel deployments on Mac: Production and Preview

Check whether your change reached the right environment

After pushing a branch, open MakerNotch’s deployments view and check the project, branch, environment and deployment state. A ready Preview lets you inspect that branch’s deployment. It does not mean the production site has changed.

Keep GitHub CI and deployments in the same MakerNotch project so you can follow a change from its workflow to the deployed page.

Walk through a release: CI → Preview → Production

Suppose you are shipping a billing-page fix for Atlas, an example project. Your branch is fix/billing. The animated demo above uses sample deployments; use your own branch and domain when following these steps.

1. Choose Atlas in MakerNotch. Confirm that its GitHub repository and Vercel connection both belong to that product. A green result from another project is not evidence about this change.
2. Check the GitHub workflow. Confirm the relevant run and commit. Successful checks tell you the workflow passed; they do not tell you whether Vercel has published the change.
3. Open Vercel and filter Preview. Find fix/billing. Wait until its deployment is Ready, then open it and test the changed billing page. If it is Building or Error, inspect the build in Vercel.
4. Release through your normal workflow. Merge or promote in your Git provider or Vercel. MakerNotch does not perform that action.
5. Filter Production and check the change. Verify the relevant deployment, then open your public domain separately and repeat the billing-page check. A working Preview alone does not establish that customers can use the fix.

Vercel allows deployment and promotion workflows to vary. Check your project’s production branch and domain configuration in Vercel’s environment documentation.

What you see	What it establishes	What to check next
GitHub checks passed	That workflow succeeded	The corresponding Vercel deployment
Preview is Ready	A preview deployment is available	The feature at that Preview URL
Production is Ready	The production deployment completed	The public domain and user journey
The live page works	That particular check succeeded	Error reports and uptime monitoring for ongoing reliability

Connect your Vercel projects

You need an activated copy of MakerNotch and a Vercel access token that can access the intended personal account or team. Start with the installation guide if needed.

1. Select the MakerNotch project for the product you maintain, then open Settings → Vercel.
2. Paste your Vercel access token and choose Load projects.
3. Select the projects you want to follow. MakerNotch accepts between 1 and 10 Vercel projects in one connection, useful for a product with separate frontend and documentation deployments.
4. If entering details manually, provide the project identifier and the team ID for a team-owned project.
5. Run the connection verification. MakerNotch checks the deployments of each selected project before saving the token to the macOS Keychain.
6. Open the deployments view and confirm that the labels match the product you intended to connect.

Choose a token scope that covers the intended projects. The connection reads deployments; it does not promote or redeploy them. Vercel controls the token’s available permissions and scope.

Choose Production or Preview

Production is the environment to check for the shipped site. Preview is for reviewing work outside the production deployment. Vercel documents their behaviour in its environments guide.

A useful routine is to select the project, filter the environment, find the relevant branch or change and then open its deployment. For example, checking a documentation Preview will not tell you whether your frontend’s Production deployment is ready.

Use recognisable project labels when following several Vercel projects. If they belong to different products or accounts, separate them into MakerNotch projects.

Read the state before opening the site

• Queued or building: the deployment is still waiting or being built.
• Ready: open the deployment and verify the actual page or feature you changed.
• Error or cancelled: inspect the deployment in Vercel for the failure or cancellation details.

These states describe deployment progress. A successful deployment can still contain an application error. Production error tools such as Sentry answer a different question.

Fix an empty or outdated deployment list

First clear an environment filter that might be hiding the expected deployment. Then check the selected Vercel project and team. A token scoped to the wrong account or an expired token can prevent access.

If the connection was previously working, inspect its error and refresh manually. Automatic refresh is optional; periodic checks can be delayed by sleep, network errors and provider limits. Repeated refreshes cannot override a provider’s wait period.

Common questions

Can I follow several Vercel projects in one view?

Yes, up to ten configured Vercel projects per MakerNotch project. Their deployments are combined into the project’s view, with the most recent first.

Does MakerNotch deploy my code?

No. This connection reads deployment information and lets you open the deployed site. Deploy and promote through your existing Vercel workflow.

Does the app keep every product monitored in the background?

Automatic refresh follows the selected MakerNotch project. It is a desktop status view, not an always-on uptime monitoring service for every product.