github/github-mcp-server · error

failed to get latest release: %w

Error message

failed to get latest release: %w

What it means

Returned by get_latest_release when client.Repositories.GetLatestRelease (GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest) fails. GitHub answers 404 both for an unknown repo and - very commonly - for a repo that simply has no published (non-draft) release yet, so 404 is the dominant trigger. The handler wraps with a bare fmt.Errorf instead of the structured ghErrors mapping used by neighbors, so the status code lives only in the wrapped *github.ErrorResponse; 401 (expired token) and 403 (rate limit) also surface here.

Source

Thrown at pkg/github/repositories.go:1955

		[]scopes.Scope{scopes.Repo},
		func(ctx context.Context, deps ToolDependencies, _ *mcp.CallToolRequest, args map[string]any) (*mcp.CallToolResult, any, error) {
			owner, err := RequiredParam[string](args, "owner")
			if err != nil {
				return utils.NewToolResultError(err.Error()), nil, nil
			}
			repo, err := RequiredParam[string](args, "repo")
			if err != nil {
				return utils.NewToolResultError(err.Error()), nil, nil
			}

			client, err := deps.GetClient(ctx)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get GitHub client: %w", err)
			}

			release, resp, err := client.Repositories.GetLatestRelease(ctx, owner, repo)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get latest release: %w", err)
			}
			defer func() { _ = resp.Body.Close() }()

			if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
				body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
				if err != nil {
					return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read response body: %w", err)
				}
				return ghErrors.NewGitHubAPIStatusErrorResponse(ctx, "failed to get latest release", resp, body), nil, nil
			}

			r, err := json.Marshal(release)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal response: %w", err)
			}

			result := utils.NewToolResultText(string(r))
			// Releases are published by collaborators with push access, so

View on GitHub (pinned to 0ea1f775a7)

Solutions

1. Confirm a published release exists: `gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/releases --jq '[.[] | select(.draft==false)] | length'`.
2. If zero: switch to list_releases and treat the empty list as 'no releases'.
3. 404 despite releases: fix owner/repo spelling or grant the token repo access.
4. 401/403: refresh the token / wait out the rate-limit window.

Example fix

// caller: treat 404 as 'no release yet' instead of a hard failure
const res = await client.callTool({ name: 'get_latest_release', arguments: { owner, repo } });
if (res.isError && /failed to get latest release/.test(JSON.stringify(res.content))) {
  const list = await client.callTool({ name: 'list_releases', arguments: { owner, repo } });
  // parse list; empty -> report 'no published releases'
}

# get_latest_release 404s until a non-draft release exists - check first
gh api 'repos/OWNER/REPO/releases?per_page=100' --jq '[.[] | select(.draft == false)] | length'
# 0 -> skip get_latest_release; call list_releases and treat [] as 'no releases'

const res: any = await client.callTool({ name: 'get_latest_release', arguments: { owner, repo } });
if (res.isError && /failed to get latest release/.test(JSON.stringify(res.content))) {
  // 404 is expected for repos with no published release - fall back
  const list: any = await client.callTool({ name: 'list_releases', arguments: { owner, repo } });
}

When it happens

Trigger: Repo exists but has zero published releases (404 'Not Found'); only draft or prerelease-unpublished entries exist, since the latest endpoint never returns drafts; unknown/private-to-token repo (404); expired or revoked token (401); rate limit exhausted (403).

Common situations: Calling get_latest_release on a brand-new project before its first release; repos whose releases are all drafts; wrong owner/repo; CI token quota exhausted.

Related errors

• failed to list releases: %w
• failed to fetch raw content: %s
• failed to list repository security advisories: %w
• failed to query repository metadata: %w
• %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of github/github-mcp-server@0ea1f775a7 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b59ff2dd4a1928a0. Report an issue: GitHub.