Migrating Next.js from Vercel to AWS Fargate

If you are seeing a warning from deploy-stack about output: 'standalone', your Next.js configuration is missing a crucial setting required for containerized environments.

By default, Next.js requires your entire node_modules folder to run the production server. This creates massive, bloated Docker containers that boot slowly and cost more to host. The standalone output mode tells Next.js to trace your code and bundle only the specific files and dependencies actually used in production, creating an ultra-lean deployment artifact.

How to Fix

1. Update next.config.js (or .mjs / .cjs)

Open your Next.js configuration file in the root of your project and add output: 'standalone' to the configuration object.

Before (Vercel Default):

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  reactStrictMode: true,
  // Other existing config...
};

export default nextConfig;

After (AWS Ready):

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  reactStrictMode: true,
  output: 'standalone', // <-- Add this line
  // Other existing config...
};

export default nextConfig;

2. (Optional) Define a Health Check Route

AWS Application Load Balancers require a route to ping to ensure your app is healthy. If you don’t already have one, create a simple API route in your app (e.g., app/api/health/route.ts for App Router, or pages/api/health.ts for Pages Router) that returns a 200 OK status.

When running deploy-stack, choose Advanced Configuration and set your ALB Health Check Path to this route (e.g., /api/health).

3. Deploy

Your Next.js app is now perfectly optimized for AWS ECS Fargate!

Run npx deploy-stack apply. The CLI’s generated Dockerfile will automatically target your new .next/standalone directory and deploy the optimized build to the cloud.