On October 10, 2026, I ran vercel deploy --prod --skip-domain using Vercel CLI 54.4.1 to create a staging deployment without changing live production routing.

Instead, Vercel reassigned the automatically generated production alias company-os-cockpit-ronsosops.vercel.app to the new deployment.

Project: company-os-cockpit (Hobby plan)
Incident deployment: dpl_EF1dfBotJuwKZrn4jfYQ4n9h8YzS

Recovery: I manually restored the alias to the previous deployment. All production domains are now correctly routed.

I would appreciate clarification on three questions:

1. Does --skip-domain exclude the generated <project>-<scope>.vercel.app alias?
2. How can I build and verify a production-targeted deployment without reassigning ANY existing production aliases, then explicitly promote it after approval?
3. The promotion-alias API still returns pending for two domains despite correct routing. Does this represent an active operation or historical metadata?

I'm looking for a safe, repeatable deployment procedure that works on the Hobby plan, without risking unintended production changes.

Thank you!