Vercel

AIOLiveTV can run on Vercel as a Container Function. The Express server and the React frontend stay in the same image; there is no Next.js rewrite.

Public beta (0.1.0-beta). Use this for a personal instance. Breaking changes are likely before 1.0.

Vercel builds Dockerfile.vercel as a Container service and routes every request to that image. Scheduled maintenance uses Vercel Cron Jobs against /api/internal/tasks/*.

In Project Settings → General → Framework Settings, set Framework Preset to Container (or Services). Clear any Build Command and Output Directory overrides. framework: null plus pnpm run build makes Vercel look for a public/ folder and fail with No Output Directory named "public".

Keep Root Directory empty (the Git repository root). If it is set to packages/docs, Vercel builds the documentation site instead of the addon container.

The instance filesystem is not persistent. SQLite, the data/ directory, and in-memory caches are not shared between instances. Use PostgreSQL and Redis.

What stays on Vercel

Dashboard, login, and configuration
Manifest, catalog, meta, stream, and EPG responses
Built-in Live TV addons (M3U, XMLTV, Xtream, Vivo TV, Claro TV, Mi.tv)
Cron-triggered maintenance (inactive users, expired SQL cache, analytics rollup)

What does not run on Vercel

SQLite
Stream Probe / ffprobe (unless FFPROBE_PATH is provided)
Built-in media proxy (video bytes must go from the provider to Stremio)
Process-local timers (setTimeout background tasks)

Required services

PostgreSQL — Neon, Supabase, or any external Postgres. Prefer a pooler URL.
Redis / Valkey — Upstash or another Redis compatible with rediss://.

Environment variables

Set these in the Vercel project settings. Do not set PORT; the platform provides it.

BASE_URL=https://aiolivetv.example.com
SECRET_KEY=<64-character-hex>
DATABASE_URI=postgresql://user:password@host:port/database
DATABASE_POOL_MAX=3
REDIS_URI=rediss://user:password@host:port
REDIS_TIMEOUT=5000
NODE_ENV=production
SYSTEM_LIFECYCLE_ENABLED=false
LOG_LEVEL=info
LOG_FORMAT=json
CRON_SECRET=<long-random-secret>

Leave HTTP_ALLOW_PRIVATE_URLS unset (false). The platform must not fetch user-supplied XMLTV, M3U or addon URLs that point at localhost, private networks or cloud metadata.

Keep SECRET_KEY stable. Changing it makes existing encrypted configurations undecryptable.

Optional: ANALYTICS_ENABLED=false for the first deploy. Analytics that remain enabled are written to PostgreSQL; the in-memory buffer is flushed at the end of each request.

Deploy

Production deploys run on a published GitHub Release, not on every commit. vercel.json sets git.deploymentEnabled to false so the Git integration does not build on push or pull request. The Deploy Vercel workflow checks out the release tag and runs vercel deploy --prod.

Create a Vercel project from this repository. Set Framework Preset to Container. Vercel builds Dockerfile.vercel and routes all traffic to that image.

Attach PostgreSQL and Redis, then set the environment variables above.

In the GitHub repo, add secrets VERCEL_TOKEN, VERCEL_ORG_ID, and VERCEL_PROJECT_ID. The org and project IDs are in .vercel/project.json after vercel link. Create the token in the Vercel account tokens page with Full Account scope. Project-scoped and team-scoped tokens fail the CLI preflight (GET /v2/user → User not found).

Publish a GitHub Release (or let release-please merge), then open /api/v1/health on the production URL. To redeploy an existing tag, run Deploy Vercel with workflow dispatch.

Create a test configuration in the dashboard, install the manifest in Stremio, and verify catalog, meta, stream, and EPG responses.

Confirm that stream URLs point at the original provider, not at the Vercel host.

Raise the Function maxDuration in the Vercel project if large M3U or XMLTV sources need more than the plan default. Keep the built-in proxy disabled.

Cron jobs

vercel.json registers three daily jobs (Hobby-compatible; more than once per day requires Pro):

Path	Schedule
`/api/internal/tasks/prune-users`	`0 4 * * *`
`/api/internal/tasks/clear-expired-cache`	`30 4 * * *`
`/api/internal/tasks/analytics-rollup`	`0 5 * * *`

Each request must include Authorization: Bearer ${CRON_SECRET}. Vercel adds this header automatically when CRON_SECRET is set.

First-deploy defaults

PostgreSQL and Redis: required for a healthy production deploy
M3U, XMLTV/EPG, Xtream, Vivo TV, Claro TV, Mi.tv: enabled from user configuration
Stream Probe: disabled unless FFPROBE_PATH is set
Media proxy: disabled
System lifecycle (restart/stop process): disabled