The Build Output API is a file-system-based specification for a directory structure that can produce a Vercel deployment.
Framework authors can take advantage of framework-defined infrastructure by implementing this directory structure as the output of their build command. This allows the framework to define and use all of the Vercel platform features.
Overview
The Build Output API closely maps to the Vercel product features in a logical and understandable format.
It is primarily targeted toward authors of web frameworks who would like to utilize all of the Vercel platform features, such as Vercel Functions, Routing, Caching, etc.
If you are a framework author looking to integrate with Vercel, you can use this reference as a way to understand which files the framework should emit to the .vercel/output directory.
If you are not using a framework and would like to still take advantage of any of the features that those frameworks provide, you can create the .vercel/output directory and populate it according to this specification yourself.
You can find complete examples of Build Output API directories in vercel/examples.
Check out our blog post on using the Build Output API to build your own framework with Vercel.
Known limitations
Native Dependencies: Please keep in mind that when building locally, your build tools will compile native dependencies targeting your machine’s architecture. This will not necessarily match what runs in production on Vercel.
For projects that depend on native binaries, you should build on a host machine running Linux with a x64 CPU architecture, ideally the same as the platform Build Image.
More resources
Last updated August 11, 2026
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Cross-link map: Build Output API (/docs/build-output-api)From the Vercel docs graph (built 2026-09-21T05:26:59.511Z), spanning vercel.com docs + KB, nextjs.org, ai-sdk.dev, and other Vercel documentation sites. Full graph as JSON: https://vercel.com/docs/graph.jsonSemantically closest pagesAnnouncing the Build Output APIHow Vercel builds your application — Learn how Vercel transforms your source code into optimized assets ready to serve globally.Frameworks on Vercel — Vercel supports a wide range of the most popular frameworks, optimizing how your application builds and runs no matter wvercel build — Learn how to build a Vercel Project locally or in your own CI environment using the vercel build CLI command.Features — Learn how to implement common Vercel platform features through the Build Output API.This page links to (7)Build Output Configuration — Learn about the Build Output Configuration file, which is used to configure the behavior of a Deployment.Features — Learn how to implement common Vercel platform features through the Build Output API.Vercel Primitives — Learn about the Vercel platform primitives and how they work together to create a Vercel Deployment.Services — Learn how a deployment with multiple services is structured in the Build Output API.Build image overview — Learn about the container image used for Vercel builds.Build your own web frameworkFramework-defined infrastructurePages that link here (18)By site: vercel-kb (1) · vercel-web (3) · vercel-docs (14)From vercel-kbDeploy to Vercel with Self-Hosted Git Pipelines \(GitLab & Bitbucket\) — Learn how to use GitLab Pipelines to deploy to Vercel including support for self-managed GitLab.From vercel-webBuild your own web frameworkHow we cut CDN metadata lookup latency by 91%How we made global routing faster with Bloom filtersFrom vercel-docsBuild Features for Customizing Deployments — Learn how to customize your deployments using Vercel's build features.vercel build — Learn how to build a Vercel Project locally or in your own CI environment using the vercel build CLI command.vercel deploy — Learn how to deploy your Vercel projects using the vercel deploy CLI command.Deploying Projects from Vercel CLI — Learn how to deploy your Vercel Projects from Vercel CLI using the vercel or vercel deploy commands.Optimize Deployment Storage — Set retention periods, review remaining usage, and reduce deployment output size.Draft Mode — Vercel's Draft Mode enables you to view your unpublished headless CMS content on your site before publishing it.Frameworks on Vercel — Vercel supports a wide range of the most popular frameworks, optimizing how your application builds and runs no matter wSvelteKit on Vercel — Deploy SvelteKit applications to Vercel and configure the adapter, rendering, streaming, ISR, analytics, and Routing MidRuntimes — Runtimes transform your source code into Functions, which are served by our CDN. Learn about the official runtimes suppoHow Vercel builds your application — Learn how Vercel transforms your source code into optimized assets ready to serve globally.How requests flow through Vercel — Learn how Vercel routes, secures, and serves requests from your users to your application.Glossary — Learn about the terms and concepts used in Vercel's products and documentation.Getting started with ISR — Learn how to set up Incremental Static Regeneration \(ISR\) with time-based and on-demand revalidation.Limits — Look up account limits, usage summaries, rate limits, and resource constraints for every Vercel plan.
