Github Action deploy to Vercel is using old work account

[dwalintukan]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Bug

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Misc

Discussion Details

My Github Action has been failing since a couple of days ago. My account email is originally personalemail@gmail.com (masked). I attached workemail@gmail.com to my personal Github Account previously with my old company. They disconnected my access recently too. My Vercel account is tied to personalemail@gmail.com. I already tried to disconnect and re-auth everything and it's still trying to use my work email. workemail@gmail.com is no longer in my account at all. For context, this work email was from a Organization Github Account.

How can I get the Actions Cache to use the right email? There are no caches to clear on Github Actions.

Github Action to deploy to Vercel

name: Deploy Production
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

env:
  VERCEL_ENV: 'production'

jobs:
  deploy-production:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      LB_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.LB_API_TOKEN }}
      RESEND_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.RESEND_API_KEY }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Configure Git author/committer
        run: |
          git config --local user.name "Deric Walintukan"
          git config --local user.email "personalemail@gmail.com"

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '22'

      - name: Install Global Deps
        run: npm install --global vercel@latest pnpm

      - name: Pull Vercel Environment Information
        run: vercel pull --yes --environment=${{ env.VERCEL_ENV }} --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Build Project Artifacts
        run: vercel build --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        run: vercel deploy --prebuilt --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

Actions step that is failing

Run vercel deploy --prebuilt --prod --token=***
Vercel CLI 47.0.1
Retrieving project…
Deploying deric-walintukans-projects/laundrybuddies-website
Uploading [--------------------] (0.0B/4.4MB)
Uploading [=====---------------] (1.1MB/4.4MB)
Uploading [==========----------] (2.2MB/4.4MB)
Uploading [===============-----] (3.3MB/4.4MB)
Uploading [====================] (4.4MB/4.4MB)
Error: Git author workemail@gmail.com must have access to the team Deric Walintukan's projects on Vercel to create deployments.
Learn more: https://vercel.com/docs/deployments/troubleshoot-project-collaboration
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

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[jfullstackdev]

not very sure why this happens, maybe :

1. Your local git repo has commits authored by workemail@gmail.com (the old company email).
2. Vercel checks the author of the commit being deployed.
3. That email no longer has access to your Vercel team.
4. Setting git config in the workflow only affects new commits, but the commit in the repo already exists.

even vercel pull or vercel deploy --prebuilt will fail if the commit author email isn’t associated with a Vercel team member

---

Possible Solution

1. Update Commit Authors

If the commits being deployed are already authored by the old email, you can rewrite the commit history to use your personal email:

git filter-branch --env-filter '
OLD_EMAIL="workemail@gmail.com"
CORRECT_NAME="Deric Walintukan"
CORRECT_EMAIL="personalemail@gmail.com"
if [ "$GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" = "$OLD_EMAIL" ]
then
    export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$CORRECT_NAME"
    export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$CORRECT_EMAIL"
fi
if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" = "$OLD_EMAIL" ]
then
    export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="$CORRECT_NAME"
    export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="$CORRECT_EMAIL"
fi
' --tag-name-filter cat -- --branches --tags

Then force-push the updated history:

git push --force

⚠️ Only do this if the repo is personal or you are sure rewriting history is safe, because force-pushing can disrupt collaborators.

---

2. Create a New Commit Before Deploying

If you don’t want to rewrite history, you can create a dummy commit with the correct email right before deploying:

- name: Fix Commit Author
  run: |
    git config user.name "Deric Walintukan"
    git config user.email "personalemail@gmail.com"
    git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger deployment with correct email"

This ensures that the latest commit deployed to Vercel has the correct author.

---

3. Make Sure Vercel Team Membership Matches

Check in Vercel that the email used (personalemail@gmail.com) is:

• Part of the correct Vercel team.
• Has permissions to deploy the project.

Even if you fix commits, Vercel will still block deployments if the email isn’t authorized.

---

4. Clear Vercel Cache (Optional)

Vercel sometimes caches commit info. You can try:

vercel --prod --force --token ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}

The --force flag ignores cached deployments and triggers a fresh deploy.

---

so it's like :

1. Confirm personalemail@gmail.com is in the Vercel team.
2. Add an empty commit in the GitHub Action workflow with the correct Git author.
3. Run vercel deploy --force to bypass any cached commit info.

if that still fails, rewrite the commit history to replace the old work email

[dwalintukan]

@jfullstackdev thanks so much! The rewriting of the commit authors to my personal email fixed the issue. Cheers!