phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Device "%s" is unrecognized, restricted, or you do not have

Error message

Device "%s" is unrecognized, restricted, or you do not have permission to edit it.

What it means

Thrown by PhabricatorRepository::assertValidRepositorySlug() when a repository short name contains characters outside the allowed set [a-zA-Z0-9._-]. Short names are embedded in clone URIs and directory paths, so spaces, slashes, and other special characters are rejected to keep URIs safe and paths unambiguous. It is raised when a short-name transaction (UI or 'repository.edit') supplies such a value.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/almanac/editor/AlmanacInterfaceEditEngine.php:85

    if ($device_phid === null) {
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'When creating a new Almanac interface via the Conduit API, you '.
          'must provide a "device" transaction to select a device.'));
    }

    $device = id(new AlmanacDeviceQuery())
      ->setViewer($this->getViewer())
      ->withPHIDs(array($device_phid))
      ->requireCapabilities(
        array(
          PhabricatorPolicyCapability::CAN_VIEW,
          PhabricatorPolicyCapability::CAN_EDIT,
        ))
      ->executeOne();
    if (!$device) {
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'Device "%s" is unrecognized, restricted, or you do not have '.
          'permission to edit it.',
          $device_phid));
    }

    $this->setDevice($device);

    return $this->newEditableObject();
  }

  protected function newObjectQuery() {
    return new AlmanacInterfaceQuery();
  }

  protected function getObjectCreateTitleText($object) {
    return pht('Create Interface');
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Replace disallowed characters: use hyphens or underscores for spaces and drop other symbols.
2. Normalize names in code: preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]+/', '-', $name).
3. Pre-check with PhabricatorRepository::isValidRepositorySlug() before applying the transaction.

Example fix

// before
$slug = 'widget framework 2.0 (dev)';

// after
$slug = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]+/', '-', 'widget framework 2.0 dev'); // 'widget-framework-2-0-dev-'

$slug = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]+/', '-', $raw_name);

function isValidShortName($slug) {
  return PhabricatorRepository::isValidRepositorySlug((string)$slug);
}

try {
  PhabricatorRepository::assertValidRepositorySlug($slug);
} catch (Exception $ex) {
  // reject the value and echo the rule back to the user
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a short name containing spaces, slashes, or Unicode, e.g. 'My Repo/öffen': the preg_match('/[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]/', $slug) check at PhabricatorRepository.php:386 matches and throws with the offending name.

Common situations: Copy-pasting human repository titles ('Widget Framework 2.0') into the short-name field; converting arbitrary directory names with spaces or colons into slugs; localized names with accented characters.

Related errors

• Service "%s" is unrecognized, restricted, or you do not have
• When creating a new Almanac interface via the Conduit API, y
• Interfaces must have a unique combination of network, device
• Another namespace with this name already exists. Each namesp
• When creating a new Almanac service via the Conduit API, you

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e010f15845a0e7cc. Report an issue: GitHub.