What causes "Can't load git remote" in mislav/hub?

Verify git works: run `git remote -v` manually and check for errors

Can't load git remote

Error message

Can't load git remote

What it means

Remotes() runs git.Remotes() (parsing `git remote -v` output). If the underlying git command fails — i.e. remotes cannot even be listed — the error is replaced with this opaque message, discarding the cause. Callers like loadRemotes propagate it, so any remote-based operation fails with it.

Source

Thrown at github/remote.go:39

func (remote *Remote) String() string {
	return remote.Name
}

func (remote *Remote) Project() (*Project, error) {
	p, err := NewProjectFromURL(remote.URL)
	if _, ok := err.(*HostError); ok {
		return NewProjectFromURL(remote.PushURL)
	}
	return p, err
}

func Remotes() (remotes []Remote, err error) {
	re := regexp.MustCompile(`(.+)\s+(.+)\s+\((push|fetch)\)`)

	rs, err := git.Remotes()
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("Can't load git remote")
		return
	}

	// build the remotes map
	remotesMap := make(map[string]map[string]string)
	for _, r := range rs {
		if re.MatchString(r) {
			match := re.FindStringSubmatch(r)
			name := strings.TrimSpace(match[1])
			url := strings.TrimSpace(match[2])
			urlType := strings.TrimSpace(match[3])
			utm, ok := remotesMap[name]
			if !ok {
				utm = make(map[string]string)
				remotesMap[name] = utm
			}
			utm[urlType] = url
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5c547ed804)

Solutions

Verify git works: run `git remote -v` manually and check for errors
Ensure the process runs inside a git repository working tree
Ensure git is installed and on PATH (which git); install or fix PATH in CI
Inspect .git/config for corruption and restore it (re-clone if needed)

Example fix

// before (CI image without git)
remotes, err := github.Remotes() // Can't load git remote
// after (Dockerfile)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y git
remotes, err := github.Remotes() // works

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if _, err := exec.LookPath("git"); err != nil {
    // git is not installed/on PATH; Remotes() will fail
}

Try / catch

remotes, err := github.Remotes()
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Can't load git remote") {
        return fmt.Errorf("cannot list remotes; ensure git is installed and cwd is a repo: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Install git and confirm `which git` succeeds in the runtime environment
Run inside a git repository working tree
In containers, include git in the image and preserve PATH
Sanity-check `git remote -v` runs without error before library calls

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Remotes() (directly or via loadRemotes → RemoteByName/RemoteForRepo/MainRemote/etc., or from RemoteBranchAndProject) when the `git remote -v` subprocess errors: not in a git repo, git not installed/on PATH, or corrupted .git/config.

Common situations: git binary missing in CI containers or PATH; running outside a repository; permission problems reading .git/config; broken git installation; sandboxed environments blocking process execution.

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 mislav/hub@5c547ed804 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/65b4229ad1eea616. Report an issue: GitHub.