Official website starter fails to deploy to Vercel

[lsaul]

Describe the Bug

This occurs on the official website starter template. More details provided in reproduction steps.

SyntaxError: The requested module 'payload' does not provide an export named 'createFolderField'

/vercel/path0/src/collections/Media.ts:9 import { createFolderField } from 'payload' ^ SyntaxError: The requested module 'payload' does not provide an export named 'createFolderField'

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://vercel.com/templates/next.js/payload-website-starter

Reproduction Steps

Attempting to deploy the official Payload website starter on Vercel:
https://vercel.com/templates/next.js/payload-website-starter

Click "DEPLOY" at the very top.
Follow the prompts
Add Neon for Postgres
Add Vercel Blob storage
Add prod, cron, and preview secrets for Payload

Build fails due to highlighted error.

Which area(s) are affected?

area: templates

Environment Info

Cloned the repo and ran locally - doesn't reflect Vercel's environment

Binaries:
  Node: 24.18.0
  npm: 11.16.0
  Yarn: 1.22.18
  pnpm: 10.33.0
Relevant Packages:
  payload: 3.82.1
  next: 16.2.7
  @payloadcms/db-vercel-postgres: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/drizzle: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/graphql: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/live-preview: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/live-preview-react: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/next/utilities: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-cloud-storage: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-form-builder: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-nested-docs: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-redirects: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-search: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/plugin-seo: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/richtext-lexical: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/storage-vercel-blob: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/translations: 3.82.1
  @payloadcms/ui/shared: 3.82.1
  react: 19.2.6
  react-dom: 19.2.6
Operating System:
  Platform: darwin
  Arch: x64
  Version: Darwin Kernel Version 25.5.0: Mon Apr 27 20:38:56 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.121.6~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000
  Available memory (MB): 16384
  Available CPU cores: 10

[github-actions]

Please add a reproduction in order for us to be able to investigate.

Depending on the quality of reproduction steps, this issue may be closed if no reproduction is provided.

Why was this issue marked with the invalid-reproduction label?

To be able to investigate, we need access to a reproduction to identify what triggered the issue. We prefer a link to a public GitHub repository created with create-payload-app@latest -t blank or a forked/branched version of this repository with tests added (more info in the reproduction-guide).

To make sure the issue is resolved as quickly as possible, please make sure that the reproduction is as minimal as possible. This means that you should remove unnecessary code, files, and dependencies that do not contribute to the issue. Ensure your reproduction does not depend on secrets, 3rd party registries, private dependencies, or any other data that cannot be made public. Avoid a reproduction including a whole monorepo (unless relevant to the issue). The easier it is to reproduce the issue, the quicker we can help.

Please test your reproduction against the latest version of Payload to make sure your issue has not already been fixed.

I added a link, why was it still marked?

Ensure the link is pointing to a codebase that is accessible (e.g. not a private repository). "example.com", "n/a", "will add later", etc. are not acceptable links -- we need to see a public codebase. See the above section for accepted links.

Useful Resources

• Reproduction Guide
• Contributing to Payload

[lsaul]

This is the template: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/tree/main/templates/website

Attempting to clone and install that template locally, then deploy to Vercel, produces a different error.

So the process used by Vercel to install and run the build is important to reproducing the specific issue I'm raising here.

[nathanlentz]

This is the template: https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/tree/main/templates/website

Attempting to clone and install that template locally, then deploy to Vercel, produces a different error.

So the process used by Vercel to install and run the build is important to reproducing the specific issue I'm raising here.

What was the different error you encountered?

[JarrodMFlesch]

We have updated the started template deploy button to point to the 3.x branch template while we work on main/4.x.

Thank you for reporting!

[lsaul]

Great, thanks! I'm looking forward to working with it.

[lsaul]

@nathanlentz It was related to the dynamic routing - specifically the [slug] url