Title: Deployment Blocked on Hobby Plan - Private Repo from CLI

Help
1

Current: Every CLI deployment attempt (vercel --prod) is blocked
with “Deployment Blocked - commit author did not have contributing
access.” This occurs even though I am the sole developer and account
owner deploying from my own machine.
Expected: As a solo developer on the Hobby plan deploying my own
private repository from my own machine via CLI, I expect deployments
to succeed without requiring a Pro plan upgrade.

  1. Created Vercel account (resulted in Team account, not personal)
  2. Installed Vercel CLI: npm install -g vercel
  3. Ran: vercel login (authenticated successfully)
  4. Ran: vercel --prod from project directory
  5. CLI shows “Building…” then “socket hang up”
  6. Vercel dashboard shows “Deployment Blocked”
    No code changes trigger this - it is a permissions issue only.
    Framework: Next.js 16.2.6
    OS: Windows 11
    CLI version: 54.5.1

The problem:
Every CLI deployment attempt returns “Deployment Blocked” with this message:
“The deployment was blocked because the commit author did not have contributing access to the project on Vercel. The Hobby Plan does not support collaboration for private repositories.”
This is confusing because:

  1. I am the sole developer and account owner
  2. I am deploying from my own machine using the Vercel CLI
  3. The commit author (johnMary) is the same GitHub account I used to create the repository
  4. There is no team or collaboration involved - this is a single-person project
    What I have tried:
  • Logging into Vercel CLI with vercel login
  • Running vercel --prod from my local project directory
  • Disconnecting and reconnecting the GitHub repository
  • Creating a new Vercel project
  • Selecting my personal account scope ('s projects) during CLI setup
    All attempts result in the same blocked status.
    Questions:
  1. Is this a known issue with private repositories on the Hobby plan?
  2. Is there a way to deploy a private repository via CLI on the Hobby plan without being blocked?
  3. Does the Hobby plan support CLI deployments from private repositories for solo developers?
    I would prefer not to make my repository public as it contains proprietary business logic. I am happy to provide additional details if helpful.
    Thank you.