Support for private git submodules

[goenning]

Does Vercel supports git submodules? I tried a custom build step with git submodule init && git submodule update but apparently the build happens outside a git repo

[goenning]

Found an alternative solution: use GitHub actions and call Vercel CLI from there. Apparently the automatic git deployment from Vercel does not support Submodules

[marco-koenen]

Any update on this? I have the same problem.

[Coriou]

Sorry for hijacking this discussion, but I was wondering if this also was working with Serverless Functions ? I have this node function which requires a file from a Git submodule directory. While working fine locally, through vercel dev, once deployed the function throws an ENOENT error because it can not find the file.

I've tried including said file via vercel.json's includeFiles config which didn't help.

Works as expected with a file which isn't sourced from a submodule directory.

[Coriou]

I've actually found the problem. I originally had the submodule's url as a SSH address. I've switched to HTTP and it now works as expected...

[cnerylozada]

Thank u so much, It works !

[styfle]

We support public git submodules over HTTP – No need for additional configuration or build commands.

However, we don't have plans to add private submodules or SSH submodules at this time, but maybe in the future.

See documentation

[k-lusine]

Hi @styfle.

Any update on private submodules?

[mmskvortsov]

Hello there. Any news about private submodules integration?

[beeinger]

Until Vercel adds support for private submodules, here is a solution:
https://github.com/beeinger/vercel-private-submodule

[willemmulder]

Any update on this @styfle?

[btakita]

@styfle Please support git submodules using the git@ protocol. This is causing issues with me setting the root directory setting in a monorepo using git submodules. I cannot use the root directory setting as I need to run a custom script in the monorepo directory to load the submodules...one of which is the website.

[marcofranssen]

What about the support of ssh style submodules? Currently I'm facing the following error

WARN: failed to fetch one or more git submodules: Failed to clone 'my-submodule' a second time, aborting
--

[unitof]

To clarify what @styfle said earlier and after a bit’o frustrating debugging of my own:

Vercel supports Git submodules but only cloning them via HTTP or HTTPS, not SSH which is the default. Switch the protocol in your .gitmodules from SSH syntax to HTTPS:

Will cause WARN: failed to fetch one or more git submodules:

[submodule "content"]
	path = content
	url = [email protected]:unitof/self-docs.git

Will work hunky dory:

[submodule "content"]
	path = content
	url = https://github.com/unitof/self-docs.git

[jessegavin]

"Will work hunky dory" IF the https url points to a public repo.

[beeinger]

Until Vercel adds support for private submodules, here is a solution:
https://github.com/beeinger/vercel-private-submodule

[alexkushnarov]

@beeinger Thanks for the solution but it is didn't work for me quite well, for some reason "vercel-install" script was not executing and submodule was not fetched. I solved this by replace "vercel-install" with "preinstall": "./vercel-submodule-workaround.sh" script.

[beeinger]

Oh that is because in Vercel settings (online) you need to change the default installation script from install to vercel-install

[alexkushnarov]

Ok, Thanks!

[zivc]

@alexkushnarov your pre-install solution sounds ideal. Before I found this comment I just butchered vercel-submodule-workaround.sh to my needs

Instead of:

git fetch --depth=1 origin $COMMIT # fetch only the required version
git checkout $COMMIT # checkout on the right commit

I used:

git fetch origin
git checkout master

npm install

Hope this helps anyone else.

[oscarsala]

is this still not supported?

[junhoyeo]

I made a CLI vercel-submodules that clones submodules when added to Install Command.

npx vercel-submodules --all
npx vercel-submodules --paths specific-module-a specific-module-b

No need to add workflows or paths one by one; you can leave it to clone all submodules using the --all flag, or only clone specific modules with --paths (e.g., for ignoring script-only code).
It works for monorepos, ensuring consistent behavior regardless of the Root Directory option.
Hope this will be a temporary workaround 🙏

https://github.com/junhoyeo/vercel-submodules

[Pagebakers]

Works perfect, finally able to deploy my repo with private submodules to vercel.

[junhoyeo]

I made a CLI vercel-submodules that clones submodules when added to Install Command.
https://github.com/junhoyeo/vercel-submodules

Bump - Thanks to our contributors @harumaxy and @dikshantrajput, we now support fine-grained PATs(actually this update was in December) and custom branch support(shipped today) that comes right out of the box!

[jlorezz]

@junhoyeo is there a way to also install the node_modules for the respective git submodules? or would we need to build a separate script for this?

[junhoyeo]

@florianbress Late response, sorry. vercel-submodules don't have that feature yet, contributions welcomed(maybe we can manage configs to add a hook to each module after installation).
I would recommend using Yarn Workspaces (but for this you should add your submodules as a fork with yarn.lock removed) or experimental.externalDir (if you're using Next.js) for now.

[jessegavin]

I am chiming in to say that this is a very important feature for my team.

While I am thankful for the creative solution @junhoyeo has made available, it doesn't feel great to hand over a Github token with wide permissions to a 3rd party npm package.

[smorimoto]

This workaround allows you to check out multiple submodules using a fine-grained personal access token. If someone needs something like that with absolutely zero dependencies, just take a look.
https://github.com/smorimoto/vercel-private-submodule

[smorimoto]

@goenning Yes. It rewrites your submodule configuration from ssh to https and then takes care to set the token to access with https. (You may need to tweak it for your own use, since it's a case of using it as-is. The sed part...)
It also automatically remove your token from the runner if the submodule is checked out or the process fails.

Note: yarn --immutable is a feature of yarn v2, so don't forget to configure it for your tool.

[smorimoto]

@goenning Good point, indeed. I will update the documentation.

[smorimoto]

@goenning Well, whether it should be placed in the root of the project depends on your Vercel setup. If the base directory has changed, it may looks to be higher than the root from that page. (Even if it's actually just specifying the root.)

[smorimoto]

If that works, you should get a log like this. Feel free to get in touch if you encounter any bumps.

[meatjam]

thx,this works perfectly and gracefully!

[ilia-os]

Please add ssh submodule support. This is really important for all monorepos utilizing submodules.

[smorimoto]

FYI: https://github.com/vercel-contrib/vercel-workaround

[smorimoto]

It supports SSH sub modules

[52617365]

Jesus this still does not work. Running into Warning: Failed to fetch one or more git submodules with a public repo that has a HTTPS url.
Can't seem to find a way to deploy a Hugo site that has a theme set as a git submodule.

[jessegavin]

Fetching public HTTP submodules should work and if it doesn't, it should be filed in a different issue.

This issue is only about supporting private git submodules.

[smorimoto]

In the sense of pushing the hack in one place, you should be able to solve it by patching this script
https://github.com/vercel-contrib/vercel-workaround

[smorimoto]

Of course I recommend the SSH format, but even if it’s in HTTPS format, it should work perfectly just by patching the line of sed stuff 🙂

[willemmulder]

Anything for this on the roadmap yet?

[beeinger]

have a look at this - if you use github tokens in .gitmodules everything works like if the support was there

[smorimoto]

If you want to be more polite: https://github.com/vercel-contrib/vercel-workaround/blob/main/vercel-submodule-workaround.sh

[willemmulder]

Yeah that works! Still native support would be nice; hence the question 😊