Vercel won't deploy a commit because it can't verify the commit author

What it means in plain English

Vercel's project collaboration troubleshooting guide says that for private repositories, a deployment can fail if Vercel cannot identify the commit author, or if your team requires manual approval before adding the committer.

On a Hobby team, the commit author must be the owner of the Hobby team that contains the Vercel project connected to the Git repository. Vercel checks this by comparing the Hobby team owner's Login Connections with the commit author. Vercel says the Hobby plan does not support collaboration for private repositories. Collaboration is free for public repositories.

On Pro and Enterprise teams, the commit author must be a member of the team that contains the project.

Likely causes

• The commit was authored with an email that is not tied to the Vercel account that owns the Hobby team.
• The Vercel account is not connected to the Git provider.
• The local git config user.email does not match a verified email on the Git provider account, so the provider cannot associate the commit with a user.
• On a Pro or Enterprise team, the committer is not a member yet, or is waiting for manual approval.

How to fix it, step by step

1. On the machine that made the commit, read the commit email:

git config user.email

2. Check that it matches a verified email on your Git provider account. Vercel says a mismatch here is the likely cause when the provider cannot associate the committer with a user.
3. On a Hobby team, make sure all commits are authored by the Git user associated with your account.
4. Link your Git provider in Vercel: Account Settings, then Login Connections, then connect your GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket account.
5. If your account is not connected to the Git provider, set your Vercel email address so it matches the email on the commit. If you commit with more than one email address, add and verify each one in Account Settings.
6. On a Pro or Enterprise team, check the collaboration settings. If the team uses manual approval, approve the pending membership. Vercel says the committer must redeploy after approval.

How to check it worked

• The next commit from that author creates a deployment on Vercel.
• git config user.email matches a verified email on the Git provider account.

Sources

• https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/troubleshoot-project-collaboration (opens in a new tab)