Vercel AI Updates: June 23, 2026

1. Vercel Flags Launches as Platform-Native Feature Flags

Vercel released Vercel Flags, a feature flag system built into the platform that lets teams decouple feature releases from code deployments. Flags are evaluated server-side by default through the open-source Flags SDK, with native support for Next.js and SvelteKit, and flags defined in code automatically appear as drafts in the dashboard. The system supports progressive rollouts, instant kill switches, Precompute for static page variants, and a Flags Explorer for browser testing. Source

2. WebSocket Support Enters Public Beta on Vercel Functions

Vercel Functions can now serve WebSocket connections, enabling bidirectional communication between clients and server-side code. The feature runs on Fluid compute and supports real-time use cases such as interactive AI streaming, chat, and collaborative tools, with standard Node.js libraries like ws and frameworks like Socket.IO. Under Active CPU pricing, charges apply only during message processing rather than idle connection time. Source

3. Sakana Fugu Ultra Added to Vercel AI Gateway

Vercel added Sakana AI’s Fugu Ultra model to the Vercel AI Gateway, accessible in the AI SDK with the model identifier sakana/fugu-ultra. The model coordinates multiple frontier models rather than acting as a single entity, routing tasks to one to three agents depending on the problem. Vercel states its reasoning and scientific benchmark capabilities are similar to Claude Mythos Preview and Fable 5, with no markup or platform fee on inference. Source

4. Claude Design Can Now Deploy Directly to Vercel

Vercel is now a send-to destination inside Claude Design, allowing users to send a finished design to Vercel and get a live URL back without leaving the canvas. The flow creates a new project in the user’s connected Vercel account and returns a shareable live link. Users enable it by adding Vercel as a sharing destination and connecting the Vercel MCP server through the Share menu. Source

5. Vercel CLI Adds Signed Blob URL Support

Vercel added a vercel blob presign command to the CLI that generates a scoped URL with a set expiration time. The generated URL permits a single operation on a specific object. The addition gives developers a command-line way to create time-limited, scoped access to blob storage objects. Source