publication kept being rejected after {attempts} attempts: {

Error message

publication kept being rejected after {attempts} attempts: {reason}

What it means

Publishing a dotfiles change is done as a push; on rejection (non-fast-forward, the upstream moved), mise fetches the new upstream, re-merges, and retries up to `PUSH_RETRIES` attempts. If every retry is still rejected, it gives up with this error reporting the final rejection reason. Your local history ref is not published and the status is not advanced past the failed publish.

Source

Thrown at src/system/history/sync/run.rs:400

                        request.capture && console::user_attended_stderr(),
                    )?;
                    plans = prepare(
                        repo,
                        tracked,
                        &shared.objects(),
                        &upstream,
                        &unsaved,
                        &mut status,
                    )?;
                    break;
                }
                PushOutcome::Rejected(reason) if attempts < PUSH_RETRIES => {
                    debug!("history sync: publication rejected, fetching again: {reason}");
                    remote.fetch(&origin.branch)?;
                    upstream_commit = repo.ref_oid(UPSTREAM_REF)?;
                }
                PushOutcome::Rejected(reason) => {
                    bail!("publication kept being rejected after {attempts} attempts: {reason}")
                }
            }
        }
        status.upstream_commit = upstream_commit.clone();
        record_pending(&mut status, &plans, &Roots::current(), &shared.objects());
        outcome.pending =
            status.pending_applications.len() + usize::from(status.pending_repository);
        outcome.conflicts = status.conflicts.len();
        status.last_error = None;
        status.failing_since = None;
        status.consecutive_failures = 0;
        status.backoff_until = None;
        if !request.dry_run {
            notify_new_conflicts(&mut status);
        }
        Ok(())
    })();
    if let Err(err) = &result {

View on GitHub (pinned to afd2eddd3a)

Solutions

Wait for the other machine's pushes to settle, then re-run sync/publish
Read `{reason}` in the message; fix the underlying rejection (e.g. unprotect the branch or resolve the noted conflict)
Pull and reconcile manually: `mise bootstrap dotfiles pull`, resolve conflicts, publish again

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

mise bootstrap dotfiles status   # check for concurrent publishers before pushing

Try / catch

catch (e) { if (String(e).includes('publication kept being rejected')) { await sleep(backoff); return retryPublish(); } throw e; }

Prevention

Coordinate publish times across machines sharing one setup branch
Resolve push-rejection reasons (branch protection, hooks) on the remote before repeated attempts

When it happens

Trigger: `mise bootstrap dotfiles publish`/sync where the push loop receives `PushOutcome::Rejected(reason)` for `attempts >= PUSH_RETRIES` — the remote keeps advancing (or keeps rejecting) so the merge never lands cleanly.

Common situations: Another machine is continuously pushing to the same setup branch during your publish; a remote hook rejects pushes for a policy reason (protected branch, push rules); persistent rebase conflict that the automatic merge cannot resolve.

Understand the failure class

Background: "git command failed": what it means when a tool shells out to git and git exits non-zero — this error's family across 21 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@afd2eddd3a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/da3aaef091728043. Report an issue: GitHub.