Technical Details

How Prev turns a change into a temporary review URL.

Prev packages a self-contained web app, deploys it into an isolated runtime, provisions HTTPS, and shuts it down when the review window expires.

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Terminal

$ prev create . --subdomain acme-redesign --ttl 7d
✓ Packaging project...
✓ Uploading source...
✓ Building isolated image...
✓ Live at https://acme-redesign.prev.sh

Workflow

From project to URL
in three steps

Install the CLI

One command to install. Works on Mac, Linux, and Windows.

curl -fsSL https://prev.sh/install.sh | sh

Read installation docs

Create a preview

Run Prev from a project folder, a remote source, or a Docker image. Source deploys build in Prev infrastructure, so you do not need a local Docker daemon for that path.

cd my-project && prev create .

Explore CLI commands

Share and expire

Prev returns a public HTTPS URL. Share it with reviewers, protect it when needed, and let the TTL stop it automatically.

https://focal-fossa.prev.sh

Manage preview environments

Deploy Paths

Use the path that matches your project.

Local source deploys

Package the current project folder, build it in Prev infrastructure, and get a review URL.

Remote sources

Use the --source flag for GitHub, Git URLs, FTP, or SSH sources when the code is not already on your machine.

Docker image deploys

Deploy a container image directly and tell Prev which HTTP port to expose.

What Prev Manages

The review plumbing stays out of your sprint.

Build and runtime isolation

Source uploads are used to build an isolated container image and are discarded after the build. Runnable images may be retained for deployment history and one-click redeploy until the history record is deleted.

HTTPS and domains

Every prev.sh preview gets HTTPS automatically. Verified custom domains get certificates provisioned via Let's Encrypt.

TTL and cleanup

Set previews to expire in hours or days. Individual previews can run up to 7 days; Teams previews can run up to 14 days.

Access control

Password-protect previews, restrict access with IP allowlists on Teams, and manage multiple API keys with labels.

Fit

What works well with Prev?

Prev supports self-contained web projects: static sites, React/Vue/Angular, Next.js, Node.js, Python, Go, PHP, Ruby, Rust, .NET, and Docker containerized applications that expose a single HTTP port.

Prev is designed for self-contained, single-container applications. If a review environment needs shared production-like data, long-running workers, or multi-service orchestration, dedicated staging may still be the better choice.

Each preview runs with 256 MB RAM by default. Memory-heavier frameworks get more: 384 MB for Ruby and Next.js, 512 MB for .NET. Preview containers are ephemeral and do not keep persistent container disk between deploys.