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# Help needed: Configuring root directory

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dfl (@imdfl) · 2025-03-21

Hi all,

My project is a webapp that wraps next.js, adding some extra functionality. Thus, the next.js project is in a subfolder under the root. This use case is mentioned in the docs and easy to configure:

1. Use the next.js framework preset
2. Change install and build commands to run my custom build
3. Set the root directory to the next.js project folder.

Using these settings, the project deploys successfully.

Now, I'm trying to save this configuration in `vercel.json`, in order to create a project template that can be immediately imported and deployed on vercel.

I can configure the first two items:

```
{
  // ...
  "framework": "nextjs",
  "installCommand": "my-install-script",
  "buildCommand": "my-build-script" 
}
```

And this works well when I import the project. However, I haven't found a setting that will change the root directory. Info and/or pointers will be highly appreciated.


Miguel Cabs (@miguelcabs) · 2025-04-07

Hey @imdfl 
You might be able to leverage the [output directory config](https://vercel.com/docs/project-configuration#outputdirectory) here.

Lemme know if that helps