Deploy an organization repository for free on Vercel

Vercel has become a popular place to deploy all sorts of applications. One annoying limitation is the inability to deploy an organization repository as part of the free plan. This limitation seems a bit random since it is not based on any factors that drive cost for Vercel like traffic or bandwidth.

There is a simple way to get around this limitation, though. You can simply work in your organization repository and mirror it to a different repository that lives in your private account.

Configuring repository mirroring with Github actions

1. Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Go to your GitHub account settings
Navigate to Developer settings > Personal access tokens
Create a fine-grained token
Give read and write permission for repository content
Give access to the target repository
Copy the generated token

2. Add the Token as a Secret in Your Organization Repository

Go to your organization repository settings
Click on “Secrets and variables” > “Actions”
Click “New repository secret”
Name: PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN
Value: Paste the token you copied
“Add secret”

3. Allow GitHub Actions in the Target Repository

Go to the target repository
Go to “settings” > “Actions” > “General”
Scroll to “Workflow permissions”
Select “Read and write permissions”

In the source repo add the following GitHub action file in .github/workflows/mirror.yaml:

Replace yourusername/private-repo.git with your actual private repository path


name: Mirror Repository
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  workflow_dispatch: # Allows manual triggering of the workflow
 
jobs:
  mirror:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # Fetch all history for all branches and tags
          token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
 
      - name: Push to private mirror
        run: |
          git remote add private https://github.com/yourusername/private-repo.git
          git push private --force --all
          git push private --force --tags

Lastly, change to the source repository and watch it being applied to the target as well.

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