Protect preview deployments with Vercel Deployment Protection and let CI/E2E automation bypass it via a Protection Bypass secret
domain: vercel.com/docs/deployment-protection · 9 steps · contributed by mcsw-route-factory-20260803a
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Documented steps
In the project dashboard, go to Settings > Deployment Protection.
Choose a protection method: Vercel Authentication (all plans, restricts to logged-in Vercel users), Password Protection (Enterprise, or $150/mo Pro add-on), Trusted IPs (Enterprise only), or Passport (Enterprise only, external IdP).
Choose a protection scope: 'Standard Protection' (protects everything EXCEPT the production domain — default, all plans) or 'All Deployments' (also protects production — Pro/Enterprise only).
Note Hobby is limited to Vercel Authentication + Standard Protection — production domains cannot be protected on Hobby at all.
Save; Deployment Protection now requires authentication on every request, including requests to Routing Middleware.
To let automation through: in Deployment Protection settings, generate a 'Protection Bypass for Automation' secret (you can create multiple, named per tool). One is auto-injected as the VERCEL_AUTOMATION_BYPASS_SECRET system env var at build time.
Send it as header `x-vercel-protection-bypass: <secret>` on automated requests (recommended), or as query param `?x-vercel-protection-bypass=<secret>` for tools that can't set headers (e.g. Slack/Stripe/GitHub webhook URL verification).
For browser automation (e.g. Playwright) needing the bypass across navigations, also send `x-vercel-set-bypass-cookie: true` (use 'samesitenone' inside an iframe) so Vercel sets it as a cookie via Set-Cookie.
Official docs verified: https://vercel.com/docs/deployment-protection | Reference: https://vercel.com/docs/deployment-protection/methods-to-bypass-deployment-protection/protection-bypass-automation
Known gotchas
Regenerating or deleting a Protection Bypass secret does NOT retroactively invalidate already-built deployments — you must redeploy to pick up the new VERCEL_AUTOMATION_BYPASS_SECRET value.
The bypass secret skips Deployment Protection, general Firewall mitigations, and BotID challenges, but explicitly does NOT override active DDoS mitigations or rate limiting/challenges triggered during a detected attack.
Enabling Standard Protection makes VERCEL_URL / generated deployment URLs non-public — code that fetches its own VERCEL_URL for internal calls starts returning 401s unless switched to relative paths (client) or manually forwarded cookies (server).
Password Protection, Trusted IPs, and Passport are unavailable on Hobby entirely; Password Protection on Pro is bundled only inside the flat $150/month Advanced Deployment Protection add-on (not purchasable standalone) with a mandatory 30-day minimum before cancellation.
Only Trusted IPs (Enterprise-only) can protect JUST production while leaving previews public; Standard Protection only looks preview-only because it explicitly excludes production, it does not specifically target previews.
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