How to Deploy Your Cursor-Built App

Cursor typically generates projects using Next.js with App Router, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and often Prisma or Drizzle for database access. Understanding the stack is important because it determines your deployment options and the specific configuration you'll need.

Vercel is the natural fit since Cursor generates Next.js apps. Netlify and Railway are solid alternatives

First, audit your environment variables — Cursor often hardcodes localhost URLs and API keys directly in source files. Create a .env.production file with production values. Set up a Vercel project, connect your GitHub repo, and configure environment variables in the Vercel dashboard. Verify your build works with `next build` locally before deploying. Set up a custom domain and SSL. Finally, configure security headers in next.config.ts

One of the most common deployment failures is missing or misconfigured environment variables. Cursor apps often hardcode values during development that need to be externalized for production. Audit every file for hardcoded URLs, API keys, and configuration values. Create a .env.example file listing every required variable. Set these in your hosting platform's dashboard before deploying.

After deploying, verify: HTTPS is enforced on all routes, custom domain is configured and resolving, environment variables are correctly loaded, all features work in production (not just locally), error tracking is capturing exceptions, and performance is acceptable under real conditions.

The most frequent issues we see in Cursor deployments: forgetting to set environment variables (causing startup crashes), not testing the production build locally before deploying, missing build dependencies, and using development configurations in production.