What causes "Aborted: no revision could be determined from '%s'" in mislav/hub?

Verify the ref exists locally: `git rev-parse ` — fix typos or use the full branch name.

Aborted: no revision could be determined from '%s'

Error message

Aborted: no revision could be determined from '%s'

What it means

`hub ci-status <ref>` resolves the given ref to a SHA via git.Ref(). If git cannot resolve the argument to a revision, hub discards the underlying git error and reports this fatal message instead, since a CI status can only be fetched for a concrete commit. The command aborts via utils.Check.

Source

Thrown at commands/ci_status.go:95

	}
	return -1
}

func ciStatus(cmd *Command, args *Args) {
	ref := "HEAD"
	if !args.IsParamsEmpty() {
		ref = args.RemoveParam(0)
	}

	localRepo, err := github.LocalRepo()
	utils.Check(err)

	project, err := localRepo.MainProject()
	utils.Check(err)

	sha, err := git.Ref(ref)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("Aborted: no revision could be determined from '%s'", ref)
	}
	utils.Check(err)

	if args.Noop {
		ui.Printf("Would request CI status for %s\n", sha)
	} else {
		gh := github.NewClient(project.Host)
		response, err := gh.FetchCIStatus(project, sha)
		utils.Check(err)

		state := ""
		if len(response.Statuses) > 0 {
			for _, status := range response.Statuses {
				if checkSeverity(status.State) > checkSeverity(state) {
					state = status.State
				}
			}
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5c547ed804)

Solutions

Verify the ref exists locally: `git rev-parse <ref>` — fix typos or use the full branch name.
Fetch first if the ref is remote: `git fetch origin` then retry hub ci-status origin/branch.
Check remote CI status by commit SHA if you only have one: `hub ci-status <sha>`.
Run `git ls-remote origin | grep <name>` to confirm the ref exists on the remote.

Example fix

// before
hub ci-status feature-tyop   # no such ref
// after
git fetch origin
hub ci-status origin/feature-typo

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

ref="origin/feature"
if ! git rev-parse --verify --quiet "$ref^{commit}" >/dev/null; then
  git fetch origin || exit 1
fi
hub ci-status "$ref"

Prevention

Always `git fetch` before checking CI status of remote branches.
Validate refs with `git rev-parse <ref>` before passing to hub.
Use full branch names or SHAs rather than ambiguous short refs.
Check `git ls-remote origin` when unsure a branch exists.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `hub ci-status <bad-ref>` where the ref doesn't exist: misspelled branch/tag, ref not fetched locally yet, abbreviated SHA too short or unknown, or an empty ref argument.

Common situations: Checking status of a remote branch before `git fetch`; typos in branch names; referring to a PR number without the right refs; running in a shallow clone or worktree missing the ref.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of mislav/hub@5c547ed804 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec79dd8ea2a8883c. Report an issue: GitHub.