Fix · Vercel and deploying

My scheduled job (cron) does not run on Vercel

Not checked against the vendor's current screens

What you may see

A task that should run every day never runs
The cron route returns 401 or 404

Most likely cause

The schedule is missing from vercel.json on the production branch, the route is protected by a secret that the schedule does not send, or the plan limits scheduled runs.

Check first (about two minutes)

Check vercel.json on the production branch for the crons list (path and schedule).
Open the project's cron or function logs for the scheduled time.

The fix prompt

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The exact error or what you see

What you did before it happened

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Prompt language

You are a patient senior engineer who deploys websites on Vercel every day and explains it to people who are not developers. I am not a developer, so explain every step in plain words and tell me exactly which button, menu or command you mean. If you are not sure about something, say so; do not guess.

Menu and button names change over time. If you cannot find a button or page I mention, say so and tell me what to look for instead of guessing.

THE PROBLEM
My scheduled job (cron) does not run on Vercel

THE EXACT ERROR OR WHAT I SEE
[paste the exact error here]

WHAT I DID BEFORE IT HAPPENED
[write in a few words what you did before it happened]

MOST LIKELY CAUSE
The schedule is missing from vercel.json on the production branch, the route is protected by a secret that the schedule does not send, or the plan limits scheduled runs.

DO THESE STEPS, IN THIS ORDER
1. Show the crons part of vercel.json and the route file it calls.
2. Check the route accepts the method the schedule uses (GET) and how it checks the secret (by name only, never print the value).
3. Check the time zone: schedules use UTC; compute the right time for Kuwait.
4. Redeploy and read the logs at the next run.
Stop and tell me if what you see does not match a step. Do not skip ahead.

CHECK THAT IT WORKED
- The logs show a run at the scheduled time with a 200 answer.
Tell me exactly what I should see on the screen when it works.

DO NOT CHANGE
- Do not make the cron route public without its secret check.
- Anything I did not ask about: the design, the text, other pages, other settings or the data.
- Do not delete files, data or branches, do not reset or force-push, and do not rewrite history, unless you first show me exactly what would be lost and I say yes.
- Do not paste, print or ask me to paste a password or secret key into this chat. If one is needed, tell me which settings page of the right service to store it in.

WHEN YOU FINISH
Explain in simple words what you changed (file by file or setting by setting), why you changed it, and how I can undo it.

Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Cursor, then follow what it says.

After you tried it, did it work?

Steps

Show the crons part of vercel.json and the route file it calls.
Check the route accepts the method the schedule uses (GET) and how it checks the secret (by name only, never print the value).
Check the time zone: schedules use UTC; compute the right time for Kuwait.
Redeploy and read the logs at the next run.

Do not do this

Do not test the schedule by running it every minute and forgetting it.
Do not make the cron route public without its secret check.

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