This is usually tied to the exact author on the commit Vercel is deploying, not just the email on your GitHub profile.

Check the commit that failed:

git log -1 --format='%an <%ae>'

Then compare that email to the email GitHub shows for that commit on github.com. If the commit uses an old email, a private noreply email that is not tied to your account, or a bot author, Vercel can treat it as an outside collaborator on Hobby.

The fix is usually to set git author email locally, make a new commit, and push that:

git config user.name "Your GitHub name" git config user.email "your_verified_github_email@example.com" git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger deploy" git push

If you use GitHub private email, use the full noreply address from GitHub settings, not a guessed one. The CLI deploy working makes sense because that path does not rely on GitHub commit author association the same way.

Hi Abhi,

For Hobby projects connected to a private GitHub repo, Vercel needs to verify that the commit author is the Hobby team owner. So I’d check the actual commit author, not only the email on your GitHub/Vercel profile.

Run this on the commit that failed:

1
git log -1 --format="%an <%ae>"
2

Then open that commit on GitHub and confirm GitHub associates it with your GitHub user. If GitHub shows it as unverified, unknown, a bot, or a different account, Vercel may treat it like an outside collaborator even if you are the only person using the repo.

If the email is wrong, set it locally and push a fresh commit:

1
git config user.name "Your GitHub Name"
2
git config user.email "your_verified_github_email@example.com"
3
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger Vercel deploy"
4
git push
5

If you use GitHub’s private email setting, use the exact ...@users.noreply.github.com address shown in GitHub email settings, not a guessed one.

Also check:

1
Vercel Account Settings → Authentication → GitHub connected
2
Vercel Account Settings → Emails → commit email added/verified if needed
3
GitHub repo → the commit is attributed to your GitHub user
4

Vercel’s collaboration troubleshooting page explains the Hobby behavior here:

https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/troubleshoot-project-collaboration

vercel.com

Troubleshoot project collaboration

Learn about common reasons for deployment issues related to team member requirements and how to resolve them.

The reason vercel --prod can still work is that CLI deploys are authenticated as your Vercel account directly, while GitHub auto-deploys have to verify the Git commit author.