The Deploy
After this drill, your application is live on Vercel with a public URL you can share with anyone in the world.
Why this matters
A working app on your computer is a prototype. A working app on Vercel is a product. The deployment step transforms what you built from a private exercise into a public artifact. It also introduces one of the most important concepts in modern software: the continuous deployment pipeline. Every change you push gets deployed automatically. From this point forward, your app lives on the internet.
How to do it
- 1
From Lovable: click "Publish" or connect to GitHub
Lovable has a one-click publish to a lovable.app subdomain. This is fast but limited. For a persistent, upgradeable deployment, connect to GitHub and deploy from Vercel.
- 2
Connect your Lovable project to a new GitHub repository
In Lovable, click Connect to GitHub. This creates a repository in your GitHub account with all your app's code. Every change you make in Lovable automatically syncs.
- 3
Import the GitHub repository into Vercel
Go to vercel.com → New Project → Import from GitHub. Select your repository. Vercel detects the framework automatically and deploys in 1–2 minutes.
- 4
Open your live URL and confirm it works
Vercel gives you a URL like your-app.vercel.app. Open it. Test it. Share it. This is your first deployed web application.
Success criteria
- ✓Your app is live at a public Vercel URL
- ✓You can open it on your phone (not just your computer)
- ✓You shared the URL with at least one other person
- ✓Your GitHub repository contains the app code
Common mistakes
Using only the Lovable subdomain instead of Vercel
→ The Lovable .app domain is fine for sharing immediately. But Vercel gives you more control: custom domains, environment variables, analytics. Complete the full Vercel deploy.
Not testing the deployed URL (only testing locally)
→ Deployed apps sometimes behave differently than local apps. Open the Vercel URL on a different device if possible.