item_owner, item_repo, and issue_number must all be provided

Error message

item_owner, item_repo, and issue_number must all be provided together: %w

What it means

Raised by parseItemRef (pkg/github/projects_batch.go:433) when an item uses the issue-reference form but one of item_owner, item_repo, or issue_number is missing or invalid. The three fields are evaluated together and the first failing one is wrapped into this message. The item is marked 'invalid_item_ref'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/github/projects_batch.go:433

		if !ok || s == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("node_id must be a non-empty string")
		}
		p.refKind = batchRefNodeID
		p.nodeID = s
	case hasItemID:
		id, err := validatePositiveInt64(entry["item_id"])
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("item_id: %w", err)
		}
		p.refKind = batchRefItemID
		p.itemID = id
	default:
		issueOwner, ownerErr := stringFromEntry(entry, "item_owner")
		issueRepo, repoErr := stringFromEntry(entry, "item_repo")
		issueNumber, numErr := intFromEntry(entry, "issue_number")
		for _, err := range []error{ownerErr, repoErr, numErr} {
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("item_owner, item_repo, and issue_number must all be provided together: %w", err)
			}
		}
		p.refKind = batchRefIssue
		p.issueOwner = issueOwner
		p.issueRepo = issueRepo
		p.issueNumber = issueNumber
	}
	return nil
}

func itemRefEcho(entry map[string]any) map[string]any {
	ref := map[string]any{}
	for _, key := range []string{"node_id", "item_id", "item_owner", "item_repo", "issue_number"} {
		if v, ok := entry[key]; ok {
			ref[key] = v
		}
	}
	if len(ref) == 0 {

View on GitHub (pinned to 0ea1f775a7)

Solutions

Supply all three keys on every issue-ref item: item_owner, item_repo, issue_number
Verify the exact key names (issue_number, not number/issue/num)
Check each value's type: owner/repo are non-empty strings, issue_number is a positive integer within int32 range
Validate the triple together before appending the item to the batch

Example fix

// before
{"items": [{"item_owner": "octo", "item_repo": "repo"}]}
// after
{"items": [{"item_owner": "octo", "item_repo": "repo", "issue_number": 42}]}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func validIssueRef(entry map[string]any) bool {
	_, o := entry["item_owner"]
	_, r := entry["item_repo"]
	_, n := entry["issue_number"]
	if !o && !r && !n { return true } // not the issue form at all
	owner, o1 := entry["item_owner"].(string)
	repo, r1 := entry["item_repo"].(string)
	num, n1 := entry["issue_number"].(float64)
	return o1 && r1 && n1 && owner != "" && repo != "" && num == float64(int64(num)) && int64(num) > 0 && int64(num) <= 2147483647
}

Type guard

func isCompleteIssueRef(entry map[string]any) bool { return validIssueRef(entry) }

Prevention

Treat owner/repo/number as one atomic triple in your data model
Do not partially populate the triple from different sources without a merge step
Reject rows missing any of the three before building the batch

When it happens

Trigger: Any item where at least one of item_owner/item_repo/issue_number is present (making hasIssueRef true) but not all three are valid — e.g. missing issue_number, item_owner present but item_repo absent, or issue_number as a string. Also triggers when the item has no node_id/item_id so the default branch handles it.

Common situations: Building refs from a bug-tracker export where the repo or number column is sometimes blank; using a bare "number" key instead of "issue_number"; owner/repo populated by default config with the number supplied per-item and sometimes omitted.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of github/github-mcp-server@0ea1f775a7 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f1f7a4b80796358. Report an issue: GitHub.