telep forge · docs

getting started.

how to go from an empty studio to a published website on your own github and vercel accounts, and what forge does at each step.

before you start

  • A personal GitHub account. Forge creates the website repository on your personal account. Organization-owned repositories are not supported yet.
  • A Vercel account or team that you are allowed to create projects in. Hosting usage and any charges follow your Vercel plan. Check Vercel's plan terms if the site is for a business.
  • Content you have the rights to publish, including any images you link to. Images are added by HTTPS URL, so they need to be hosted somewhere already.
  • Nothing to configure. You do not create OAuth client secrets or paste personal access tokens into Forge. You approve GitHub's and Vercel's authorization screens and Forge does the rest.

Forge is in preview. Live customer onboarding and publishing are still being verified, so expect rough edges and check support if a step does not behave as described here.

the flow

nine steps. the first three connect github, the middle three make and connect the site, the last three ship it.

  1. Open the studio and sign in with GitHub. Go to studio.telep.tools and choose Sign in with GitHub. Approve the authorization screen. The studio shows the account you signed in with.
  2. Install the Forge GitHub App on your personal account. Choose Allow repository creation. GitHub asks where to install the app. Pick your personal account. Telep IO owns the app registration. You own the installation and every repository it creates.
  3. Refresh connections if the studio does not detect repository access right after installing. Choose Refresh connections and the installation should appear.
  4. Create a website and edit a private draft. Name it, pick a style, then add pages, headings, introductions, sections, and images. Save as you go. Saving keeps a private draft. It does not publish anything.
  5. Connect Vercel. Choose Connect Vercel in Forge. During installation, Vercel asks which account or team to install into. Pick the one that should own the hosting project. If you pick the wrong one, use Change account and reconnect.
  6. Give Vercel access to the repository. Vercel uses its own GitHub integration, Vercel for GitHub, which is separate from the Forge app. Install it on your GitHub account and allow it to read the website repository. The Forge app cannot grant this on Vercel's behalf.
  7. Choose Deploy website. The text under the button lists any unmet prerequisites, such as a missing Vercel connection or an unresolved sync. When they are all met, Deploy creates the private repository and the Vercel project, pushes the site, and starts the build.
  8. Wait for the checks and build. Forge polls deployment status. When the build succeeds, open the resulting URL to see the live site.
  9. Add a custom domain through the Vercel project's domain settings. See custom domains below.

save vs. deploy

Saving

  • Saving stores a private draft on the Forge server. Nothing is pushed to GitHub or Vercel.
  • Forge keeps a snapshot of the previous saved state, so Undo last edit reverts your most recent saved edit.
  • AI chat edits, if you use them, change the draft the same way manual edits do. Review them before deploying.

Deploying

  • The first deploy creates a private GitHub repository on your personal account and a Vercel project in the account or team you connected. Later deploys reuse both.
  • The repository holds your content as a structured file, a standalone renderer, a Node build, and GitHub Actions checks. Credentials and chat history are never committed.
  • The Vercel build runs the site's checks. A failed check prevents a new production deployment. The repository and your draft are kept so you can fix the problem and retry.
  • Published pages and the images they reference are public even though the repository is private.
  • The generated site is a static site. It keeps running without any Telep service.

Conflicts

Opening a project fetches the latest content from GitHub. Before publishing, Forge fetches again and refuses to overwrite a change it has not seen. If both GitHub and your saved draft changed content, publishing pauses and Forge asks you to choose between Use GitHub content and Keep my draft content. Choose Download draft first so you have a copy either way. A plain connection failure is different. It shows Retry GitHub sync and never offers to replace content.

custom domains

  1. Register the domain with your own registrar. Forge does not buy, transfer, or hold domains.
  2. In Vercel, open the website project, then Settings → Domains, and add the domain.
  3. Create the DNS records Vercel shows you at your registrar or DNS host. Vercel issues the certificate once the records resolve.

Forge links you to the Vercel project. Domain and DNS settings live in Vercel, not in Forge.

editing outside forge

  • The structured content file in the repository is the editor's source. You can edit it directly on GitHub. Forge picks up the change the next time you open the project.
  • You can customize the site's renderer code in the repository. Forge detects and preserves it on later publishes, but does not run repository code on its server. The preview shows the stock renderer and warns that it differs. Check the deployed site on Vercel for the real rendering.
  • Files Forge did not create are left alone on subsequent publishes.
  • Repositories stay private unless you change their visibility on GitHub.

troubleshooting

The support page walks through the common failures: the GitHub App not showing up, Vercel unable to see the repository, wrong-team errors, failed builds, stuck deployment status, content conflicts, and preview differences with a custom renderer. If none of them match, get in touch with what you were doing and the exact message you saw.