nikivdev/code · error

gh api user failed

Error message

gh api user failed

What it means

github_login shells out to `gh api user -q .login` to identify the authenticated GitHub user; if the gh command completes but exits non-zero, this bail fires. It means the GitHub CLI is installed but the API call failed (auth, network, or token issues).

Source

Thrown at src/repos.rs:1473

        owner: owner.to_string(),
        repo: repo.to_string(),
    })
}

fn normalize_git_url(url: &str) -> String {
    url.trim()
        .trim_end_matches('/')
        .trim_end_matches(".git")
        .to_string()
}

fn github_login() -> Result<String> {
    let output = Command::new("gh")
        .args(["api", "user", "-q", ".login"])
        .output()
        .context("failed to run gh api user")?;
    if !output.status.success() {
        bail!("gh api user failed");
    }
    let login = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stdout).trim().to_string();
    if login.is_empty() {
        bail!("gh login was empty");
    }
    Ok(login)
}

fn resolve_remote_default_branch_in(repo_root: &Path, remote: &str) -> Option<String> {
    let head_ref = format!("refs/remotes/{remote}/HEAD");
    if let Ok(symbolic) = git_capture_in(repo_root, &["symbolic-ref", &head_ref]) {
        let prefix = format!("refs/remotes/{remote}/");
        if let Some(branch) = symbolic.trim().strip_prefix(&prefix)
            && !branch.is_empty()
        {
            return Some(branch.to_string());
        }
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to a747e741ae)

Solutions

1. Run `gh auth login` to authenticate the GitHub CLI.
2. Verify auth with `gh auth status` and refresh an expired token (`gh auth refresh`).
3. Check GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKEN env vars are unset or valid.
4. Test connectivity: `gh api user` directly to see gh's own error.

Example fix

// before
$ f clone private/repo   // gh api user -> exit 1
// after
$ gh auth login
$ gh auth status   # verify logged in
$ f clone private/repo

fn gh_ready() -> bool {
    std::process::Command::new("gh")
        .args(["auth", "status"])
        .output()
        .map(|o| o.status.success())
        .unwrap_or(false)
}
// only call flows that use github_login when gh_ready()

match github_login() {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("gh api user failed") => {
        // re-auth then retry
        run_gh_auth_login()?;
        let login = github_login()?;
    }
    r => r?,
}

When it happens

Trigger: `gh api user` returns a non-zero exit status while resolving the login during clone bootstrap / private-mirror flows.

Common situations: `gh` not logged in (`gh auth login` never run); expired or revoked token; GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKEN env var overriding invalid credentials; network/VPN blocking api.github.com.

Related errors

• gh login was empty
• `gh auth token` failed; run `gh auth login`
• claude failed: {}
• `gh auth token` returned empty token
• Could not determine GitHub username

AI-assisted analysis of nikivdev/code@a747e741ae (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/46bbdf86ef47dad4. Report an issue: GitHub.