Debug Vercel & Netlify Production Errors Without Leaving VS Code

Production debugging usually turns into a scavenger hunt.

You start in your editor, jump to a Vercel or Netlify dashboard, skim build logs, open a preview URL, reproduce the bug, open DevTools, copy stack traces into a chat window, then crawl back to your code and hope you still remember what you saw.

We built theORQL’s Vercel and Netlify integrations to compress that loop into a single workflow.

Stop Coding Blind. Try it in 2 Minutes on your App

theORQL sees all: auto-repro UI/Code failures and auto-fixes so UI changes actually stick.

In this post, you’ll learn how to:

  • Connect theORQL to Vercel or Netlify
  • Monitor build errors and runtime errors inside theORQL
  • Reproduce runtime failures to capture fresh logs (a key detail most tools miss)
  • Ship a fix via git—without living in deployment dashboards

What This Integration Unlocks

Think of this as “bringing the deployment dashboard into your editor”—but with an important twist: theORQL doesn’t just show you logs. It uses the error evidence to propose fixes you can review like normal code.

When you connect Vercel or Netlify:

  • Build failures become actionable issues you can debug immediately
  • Runtime exceptions can be captured from the live site while you reproduce them
  • Fixes can be committed and pushed from the same flow

The goal isn’t to replace your deployment platform. It’s to remove the constant back-and-forth that slows teams down.

Before You Start: The One Thing That Matters

When you monitor remote errors, theORQL only has access to the code in the repository you have open in VS Code.

That means selecting the right project and branch isn’t a formality—it’s how the AI connects a failure back to the code it can actually change.

Keep this mental model:

  • Your deployment platform has many projects and deployments
  • Your editor has one repo open
  • The integration works when those two line up

Step 1: Open Remote Monitoring in theORQL

  1. In theORQL header, click the red section that says “Click to start monitoring errors” (with a terminal icon)
  2. An errors configuration view opens
  3. Set Error Source to Remote
  4. Choose the integration you want to configure:
    • Vercel, or
    • Netlify
  5. Click Connect

At this point, theORQL will ask for an authorization token.

Step 2: Create an Authorization Token

theORQL uses your token for a very specific set of actions:

  • Listing projects
  • Listing deployments
  • Streaming error-level logs while monitoring is active

Your token is stored only on your local computer and is not shared.

Option A: Vercel Token

  1. Go to https://vercel.com
  2. Log in with the account where your project lives
  3. Select the team that contains your project
  4. Click your avatar (top right)
  5. Open Account Settings
  6. Click Tokens
  7. Create a new token:
    • Give it a name
    • Choose a scope that includes the team for your project
    • Set an expiration date
  8. Copy the token
  9. Paste it into theORQL

Option B: Netlify Token

  1. Go to https://app.netlify.com
  2. Log in
  3. Select the team containing your project (left sidebar)
  4. Click your avatar (bottom left)
  5. Open User settings
  6. Click Applications (OAuth)
  7. Find Personal access tokens
  8. Click New access token
  9. Add a description and expiration
  10. Generate and copy the token
  11. Paste it into theORQL

Step 3: Select the Right Project and Branch

Once connected, you’ll select:

  1. The project in Vercel/Netlify that matches the repo open in VS Code
  2. The branch you want to monitor

Two practical tips:

  • If you’re debugging a production incident, you’ll usually pick your main/master deployment.
  • If you’re validating a fix, it’s often safer to monitor a preview deployment for a new branch.

Important: theORQL can only propose code changes against the repo open in VS Code. If you select the wrong remote project, you’ll get mismatched context (and low-confidence fixes).

Step 4: Open the Errors View

From the chat, click the red section in the header again to open the errors view.

Confirm:

  • Error Source is still set to Remote
  • Your selected integration (Vercel or Netlify) is connected

At this point you can start monitoring build and runtime failures.

Step 5: Understand the Two Error Types

The integration supports two categories:

  • Build Errors Failures during compilation/build. Expect a high success rate (rich logs, deterministic).

  • Runtime Errors Exceptions during app execution. Expect variable outcomes (depends on reproducibility + source maps + environment).

Build errors are usually straightforward: the failure happens during the build pipeline, and the logs are already there.

Runtime errors are trickier—because with deployment platforms, logs are often ephemeral.

Step 6: Why You Must Reproduce Runtime Errors

Vercel and Netlify don’t store all logs historically in a way tools can continuously query. They only expose logs while monitoring is active.

So for runtime errors, the key workflow is:

  1. Start monitoring
  2. Go to the deployed site
  3. Reproduce the issue
  4. Let theORQL capture the error evidence while it happens

This is the difference between “debugging from a screenshot” and “debugging from the scene of the incident.”

If you don’t know how to reproduce the problem, you can:

  • Ask the AI for reproduction steps
  • Or describe user actions + expected behavior in plain language

Step 7: Resolve the Error (Build vs Runtime)

Runtime Errors: The Evidence-First Flow

  1. Reproduce the bug on the deployed URL
  2. theORQL captures the error details automatically
  3. theORQL proposes a solution

A good workflow here is to treat runtime debugging like a tight loop:

  • Reproduce → capture → fix proposal → apply → verify

Build Errors: Fast Feedback

Build errors tend to be highly actionable:

  • Missing env vars
  • Type errors
  • Module resolution failures
  • Build-time config mistakes

Because the error is deterministic and log-rich, theORQL typically has enough context to propose a fix quickly.

Step 8: Deploy the Fix Safely (Use a New Branch)

When you accept a fix, theORQL can offer to deploy it by:

  • Creating a commit
  • Running git push

We strongly recommend doing this on a new branch.

Why?

  • You get a preview deployment to validate the fix
  • You avoid pushing directly to production while you’re still investigating
  • You can roll back by simply closing the PR

One operational requirement:

  • Make sure your deployment platform is configured to create deployments for new branches pushed with git.

Step 9: Automatic Verification After Push

After you push a fix:

  1. theORQL will attempt to switch the monitored deployment to the new build
  2. It will read external service logs to validate the error is gone
  3. If it persists, it’ll iterate with the new evidence

For some runtime bugs, you may still need to manually reproduce the behavior after deploying, because not every bug throws an exception.

Important Technical Details (So You Don’t Get Surprised)

Only Error-Level Logs Are Shown

theORQL displays error-level logs.

That means:

  • Silent failures that don’t throw exceptions won’t automatically show up
  • If something is “broken” but doesn’t throw, describe what you’re seeing in the chat (UI state, expected output, network behavior, etc.)

Verify You’re Monitoring the Correct Deployment

Because deployment platforms create a new deployment for each push, it’s easy to drift.

To confirm:

  1. Open the issues view with Error Source: Remote
  2. Click the gear icon
  3. Verify the selected project and deployment are correct

Security Notes (Token Handling)

We designed this integration to keep your credentials under your control:

  • Your authorization token is not shared with anyone
  • It’s stored only on your local computer
  • It’s used only for listing projects, deployments, and streaming logs during monitoring

If you want maximum safety:

  • Use a dedicated token
  • Limit scope to the specific team
  • Set an expiration date

Managing the Integration

Disconnect

  1. Open the issues view (Error Source set to Remote)
  2. Click the gear icon
  3. Click Disconnect

Disable Automatic Monitoring

By default, when you reopen the extension, it may attempt to start monitoring automatically.

To disable:

  1. Open the issues view (Error Source: Remote)
  2. Click the gear icon
  3. Disable “Enable integration error monitoring”

The Full Workflow (End-to-End)

1. Connect integration (Vercel/Netlify)
        ↓
2. Provide authorization token
        ↓
3. Select correct project and branch
        ↓
4. Monitor errors from the issues view
        ↓
5. Replicate error on the site (if runtime)
        ↓
6. Review the AI’s proposed solution
        ↓
7. Deploy changes (on a new branch)
        ↓
8. Verify the error was fixed

Next Step

If you want to try this on your own app:

  • Connect Vercel or Netlify
  • Pick a deployment you can safely test
  • Trigger one real failure (build or runtime)

Once you see the evidence show up inside the editor, the workflow clicks.

If you’re ready to debug production issues without dashboard hopping, try theORQL and let us know what breaks (and what you wish it did next).