Store and alter single variable on vercel serverless functions - next.js

Question

For a client I am building a static website rendered with nextjs and deployed on vercel. Everything on this website is static, so I don't need any database. However, this client wants to use the instagram API to show a gallery of their photos on two of their pages. This is with a custom design, so I can't use any embed code, but to the best of my knowledge I have to use the Instagram basic display API
To the problem at hand: I was wondering if there is some way to store a single variable without creating a whole database for it in vercel. I know I can use Environment Variables, but the problem is that the instagram api needs to change the access token every 2 months. To renew the access token for instagram, I was planning to write a CRON job that runs about every month to update this value.
I was wondering if it is possible to somehow store this single value on the deployed site without creating a database just for this single value. For example, is it somehow possible to change an environment variable from within a serverless function?
Any help in the right direction is appreciated!
Thanks

Answer 1

You go to Vercel: settings-> environment variables -> add your variable. In this variable you can store your Instagram API variable and in the code you use process.env.{variable}
Example:
you defined name of variable as instagramAPI in your local files (next.config.js or .env.local)
module.exports = {
env:{
instagramAPI : 'https://instagramapiexample.com'
},
}
you define instagramAPI (exactly the same name of the variable as in the code) on your vercel settings
In your code (local files) you call process.env.instagramAPI variable to have the value of the string.
Your code works as expected.
!IMPORTANT! if you have some secrets or passwords in your process.env.variables you newer saves it in next.config.js. For this purpose you saves your instagramAPI to .env.local (described in point 1). More info here