Next.js + Vercel

This guide demonstrates how to use Infisical to manage secrets for your Next.js + Vercel stack from local development to production. It uses:

• Infisical (you can use Infisical Cloud or a self-hosted instance of Infisical) to store your secrets.

Project Setup

To begin, we need to set up a project in Infisical and add secrets to an environment in it.

Create a project

1. Create a new project in Infisical.

2. Add a secret to the development environment of this project so we can pull it back for local development. In the Secrets Overview page, press Explore Development and add a secret with the key NEXT_PUBLIC_NAME and value YOUR_NAME.

3. Add a secret to the production environment of this project so we can sync it to Vercel. Switch to the Production environment and add a secret with the key NEXT_PUBLIC_NAME and value ANOTHER_NAME.

Create a Next.js app

Initialize a new Node.js app.

We can use create-next-app to initialize an app called infisical-nextjs.

• JavaScript
• TypeScript

npx create-next-app@latest --use-npm infisical-nextjs
cd infisical-nextjs

Next, inside pages/_app.js, lets add a console.log() to print out the environment variable in the browser console.

• JavaScript
• TypeScript

import '@/styles/globals.css'

export default function App({ Component, pageProps }) {
    console.log('Hello, ', process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_NAME);
    return <Component {...pageProps} />
}

Infisical CLI for local development environment variables

We’ll now use the Infisical CLI to fetch secrets from Infisical into your Next.js app for local development.

CLI Installation

Follow the instructions for your operating system to install the Infisical CLI.

• MacOS
• Windows
• Alpine
• RedHat/CentOs/Amazon
• Debian/Ubuntu
• Arch Linux

Use brew package manager

$ brew install infisical/get-cli/infisical

Login

Authenticate the CLI with the Infisical platform using your email and password.

$ infisical login

Initialization

Run the init command at the root of the Next.js app. This step connects your local project to the project on the Infisical platform and creates a infisical.json file containing a reference to that latter project.

$ infisical init

Start the Next.js app with secrets injected as environment variables

$ infisical run -- npm run dev

If you open your browser console, Hello, YOUR_NAME should be printed out.

Here, the CLI fetched the secret from Infisical and injected it into the Next.js app upon starting up. By default, the CLI fetches secrets from the development environment which has the slug dev; you can inject secrets from different environments by modifying the env flag as per the CLI documentation.

At this stage, you know how to use the Infisical CLI to inject secrets into your Next.js app for local development.

Infisical-Vercel integration for production environment variables

We’ll now use the Infisical-Vercel integration send secrets from Infisical to Vercel as production environment variables.

Infisical-Vercel integration

To begin we have to import the Next.js app into Vercel as a project. Follow these instructions to deploy the Next.js app to Vercel.

Next, navigate to your project’s integrations tab in Infisical and press on the Vercel tile to grant Infisical access to your Vercel account.

Opting in for the Infisical-Vercel integration will break end-to-end encryption since Infisical will be able to read your secrets. This is, however, necessary for Infisical to sync the secrets to Vercel.

Your secrets remain encrypted at rest following our security guide mechanics.

Now select Production for (the source) Environment and sync it to the Production Environment of the (target) application in Vercel. Lastly, press create integration to start syncing secrets to Vercel.

You should now see your secret from Infisical appear as production environment variables in your Vercel project.

At this stage, you know how to use the Infisical-Vercel integration to sync production secrets from Infisical to Vercel.

The following environment variable names are reserved by Vercel and cannot be synced: AWS_SECRET_KEY, AWS_EXECUTION_ENV, AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_GROUP_NAME, AWS_LAMBDA_LOG_STREAM_NAME, AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME, AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_MEMORY_SIZE, AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_VERSION, NOW_REGION, TZ, LAMBDA_TASK_ROOT, LAMBDA_RUNTIME_DIR, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN, AWS_REGION, and AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.

FAQ

Why should I use Infisical if I can centralize all my Next.js + Vercel environment variables across all environments directly in Vercel?

Vercel does not specialize in secret management which means it lacks many useful features for effectively managing environment variables. Here are some features that teams benefit from by using Infisical together with Vercel:

• Audit logs: See which team members are creating, reading, updating, and deleting environment variables across all environments.
• Versioning and point in time recovery: Rolling back secrets and an entire project state.
• Overriding secrets that should be unique amongst team members.

And much more.

Is opting out of end-to-end encryption for the Infisical-Vercel integration safe?

Yes. Your secrets are still encrypted at rest. To note, most secret managers actually don’t support end-to-end encryption.

Check out the security guide.

See also:

• Documentation for the Infisical CLI
• Documentation for the Vercel integration