Deployments clean up when a Pull Request is merged

[jgoux]

Hello all,

I'm working on a little integration between Vercel and Snaplet leveraging Github Actions and the Vercel Git Integration.

I noticed that when a pull request is merged and the branch is deleted, the deployments aren't deleted, either on Vercel or Github's side. Is there any way to automatically clean up all the deployments related to a branch on both sides?

[amyegan]

You can remove deployments using the CLI or Vercel API. The downside is you need to keep track of which deployments are related to that branch if you don't want to remove preview deployments for other branches. If you want to delete all deployments aside from active preview or production, then you can use the safe option like vercel remove <my-project-name> --safe.

Vercel doesn't provide a way to remove branches or change data in GitHub, but this sounds like something you could add to your GitHub Actions.

[jgoux]

One last thing sorry 😅
Even with the "Ignored Build Step", if I deploy with the vercel cli manually using vercel deploy --prebuilt --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}, is there a way to distinguish between a deployment triggered by the CLI versus the GitHub App? In my use case, I'd reject only the deployment targeting the preview environment and being initiated by the GitHub App. I need to accept the deployments targeting the preview environment and triggered by the vercel cli.

[jgoux]

Solved, I can inject my own metadata using --meta 👍

[jgoux]

So...it's not really solved yet 😄
The workflow is working for the deployment part, but I have no feedback from the GitHub App.
It seems like using vercel deploy --prebuilt --token=$VERCEL_ACCESS_TOKEN isn't triggering any event related to the GitHub App so I can't benefit from the GitHub App feedbacks about the deployments. 😢
Is there any option to vercel deploy --prebuilt to act as if it was a deploy hook related to a branch? Or do I have to go back to my more complicated solution involving creating deploy hooks dynamically and discard vercel deploy --prebuilt?

[jgoux]

I ended up using the deploy hook approach to be fully integrated with the GitHub App. 👌
FYI I've made a reusable action to take control of Vercel's deployment when dealing with the GitHub App: https://github.com/snaplet/vercel-action

[amyegan]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing 😁 🎉

[leerob]

You can now configure the retention period for deployments through the dashboard and CLI.

For example, canceled and errored deployments might be set to 30 days retention, while production deployments might be set to 1 year. Recently deleted deployments are shown in your project settings and can be instantly restored within 30 days of deletion.

Learn more in our documentation.