cli/cli · error

resource not found, please check the URL

Error message

resource not found, please check the URL

What it means

Returned by GetIssueOrPullRequest after a successful GraphQL query of a URL's resource node when the __typename is neither "Issue" nor "PullRequest". The command can only add issues and pull requests to projects, so any other resource type (discussion, discussion comment, or a null/empty typename from a bad URL) produces this error.

Source

Thrown at pkg/cmd/project/shared/queries/queries.go:1322

func (c *Client) IssueOrPullRequestID(rawURL string) (string, error) {
	uri, err := url.Parse(rawURL)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	variables := map[string]interface{}{
		"url": githubv4.URI{URL: uri},
	}
	var query issueOrPullRequest
	err = c.doQueryWithProgressIndicator("GetIssueOrPullRequest", &query, variables)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	if query.Resource.Typename == "Issue" {
		return query.Resource.Issue.ID, nil
	} else if query.Resource.Typename == "PullRequest" {
		return query.Resource.PullRequest.ID, nil
	}
	return "", errors.New("resource not found, please check the URL")
}

// userProjects queries the $first projects of a user.
type userProjects struct {
	Owner struct {
		Projects struct {
			TotalCount int
			PageInfo   PageInfo
			Nodes      []projectQueryWithoutQueryableItems
		} `graphql:"projectsV2(first: $first, after: $after)"`
		Login string
	} `graphql:"user(login: $login)"`
}

// orgProjects queries the $first projects of an organization.
type orgProjects struct {
	Owner struct {
		Projects struct {

View on GitHub (pinned to 0eeec0b92e)

Solutions

1. Check the URL points to an issue or pull request: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/issues/N or .../pull/N
2. If you meant a discussion, note discussions are not supported by this code path; use the GraphQL API directly if you must add them
3. Print the typename in a debug run (GH_DEBUG=1) to see what the URL actually resolved to
4. Upgrade gh in case newer versions support more resource types

Example fix

// before
gh project item-add 123 --url https://github.com/org/repo/discussions/45
// after
gh project item-add 123 --url https://github.com/org/repo/issues/45

// Accept only issue/PR URLs before calling the API:
re := regexp.MustCompile(`^https://[^/]+/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/(issues|pull)/\d+$`)
if !re.MatchString(rawURL) {
    return fmt.Errorf("%q is not an issue or pull request URL", rawURL)
}

id, err := queries.GetIssueOrPullRequest(client, uri)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "resource not found") {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s: only issue and pull request URLs can be added; check the URL", uri)

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a URL to a project item-add command that resolves to something other than an Issue or PullRequest, e.g. a discussion URL (https://github.com/o/r/discussions/123), a repository URL, or a malformed URL that makes the GraphQL node resolve to an unexpected typename. The query itself succeeds, so only the typename dispatch fails.

Common situations: Users copy a discussions link instead of an issue link when running `gh project item-add`; passing a URL with a trailing slash or fragment that changes resolution; new GitHub resource types that the older gh version does not map.

Related errors

• resource not found, please check the URL: %s
• unable to determine an appropriate value for the 'branch' pl
• unknown owner type
• no projects found for %s
• error: your authentication token is missing required scopes

AI-assisted analysis of cli/cli@0eeec0b92e (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/01f3d26527d839f7. Report an issue: GitHub.