Deploy Previews
Deploy Previews allow you and your team to experience changes to any part of your site without having to publish them to production.
Netlify builds Deploy Previews by default for pull requests and merge requests. You can control whether or not Deploy Previews are generated for pull/merge requests. For more information, visit the Deploy Preview controls docs.
While Netlify creates a Deploy Preview for your pull/merge request, the Deploy Preview status updates to reflect the progression. If the deploy is successful, Netlify adds a comment to your pull/merge request with a link to the Deploy Preview. You can add, remove, or edit these notifications. Visit the deploy notifications doc for more information.
You can control who can access your site’s Deploy Previews by requiring a password to visit your Deploy Preview. Learn more at our site protection docs.
Set environment variables for Deploy Previews
Did you know that you can set different environment variable values for each deploy context, including Deploy Previews? Set specific values for the Deploy Previews context using the Netlify UI, CLI, API, or a Netlify Configuration file.
# Deploy Preview URLs
Deploy Previews work by deploying pull/merge requests to a unique URL different from the one your production site uses. This URL has the prefix deploy-preview followed by the identifier number of the pull request or merge request. For example, a Deploy Preview for pull/merge request #42 will deploy to deploy-preview-42--yoursitename.netlify.app.
While the initial deploy for your pull/merge request is pending, this URL will result in a Not Found error. For subsequent changes, the web content of the Deploy Preview URL will update as changes are pushed to the pull/merge request and successfully deployed.
You can share this URL with your team to collaborate and gather feedback.
Every deploy also has a permalink that starts with the deploy ID number. For example: 1234abcd12acde000111cdef--yoursitename.netlify.app. The contents of this URL never change, even after you redeploy your site.
# Collaborate on Deploy Previews
Using the Netlify Drawer on your Deploy Previews, you and your team can add, review, and manage feedback about site changes right from your site. You can leave comments, take screenshots and video, and test responsiveness on a mobile device.
You can open the Netlify Drawer with the keyboard shortcut ⌘\ on Apple or ^\ on Windows/Linux.
Learn more about using the Netlify Drawer in our docs on collaborating on deploys.
For troubleshooting guidance, check out our troubleshooting docs for using the Netlify Drawer.
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