Blocker — Vercel Hobby tier cron limit

Symptom

vercel.json cron entry like */5 * * * * (every 5 min) is accepted in dev but the production deploy emits a build warning and the cron never runs.

Cause

Vercel Hobby tier allows cron schedules at daily granularity only. Sub-daily schedules require Pro.

Fix

Two options:

1. Promote the project to Pro if the cron is load-bearing.
2. External trigger — drive the cron-route via curl from a separate scheduler (Hetzner cron, GitHub Actions on a schedule, an Upstash Q-job). The Vercel function stays; only the trigger source moves outside Vercel.

For Mission Control's /api/health 5-min cron, use the external-trigger pattern: a small cron on the Hetzner VPS curls the endpoint every 5 minutes.

Reference

• Cross-project playbook: ~/.claude/playbooks/nextjs16-vercel-deployment.md