diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy.yml b/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
index c29df6e..e8979c7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -110,6 +110,16 @@ jobs:
             echo "tag=latest" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           fi
 
+      - name: ✅ Verify deploy target is configured
+        env:
+          DEPLOY_HOST: ${{ vars.DEPLOY_HOST }}
+          DEPLOY_USER: ${{ vars.DEPLOY_USER }}
+        run: |
+          if [ -z "$DEPLOY_HOST" ] || [ -z "$DEPLOY_USER" ]; then
+            echo "::error::DEPLOY_HOST / DEPLOY_USER repo variables are empty — refusing to run a no-op deploy."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
       - name: 🔑 Set up SSH
         run: |
           mkdir -p ~/.ssh
diff --git a/tmfeed/deploy.playbook.yml b/tmfeed/deploy.playbook.yml
index 25046b1..0956380 100644
--- a/tmfeed/deploy.playbook.yml
+++ b/tmfeed/deploy.playbook.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 ---
 - name: Deploy FeedForBot
-  hosts: vds
+  # CI passes the host inline via `-i "<host>,"`, which lands it in the
+  # implicit `all` group, not `vds`. Targeting `vds` matched no hosts, so
+  # the playbook was silently skipped and deploys became no-ops.
+  hosts: all
   vars:
     feedforbot_token: "{{ lookup('env', 'FEEDFORBOT_TOKEN') }}"
     feedforbot_sentry: "{{ lookup('env', 'FEEDFORBOT_SENTRY') | default('', true) }}"