phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Unknown repository operation target type "%s" (in target "%s

Error message

Unknown repository operation target type "%s" (in target "%s").

What it means

When a land operation executes, it parses the operation's repository target string (format `<type>:<name>`, e.g. `branch:stable`) and maps the type to a Git ref destination. This revision only implements `branch` → `refs/heads/<name>`; any other prefix — or a target with no colon at all, which makes explode() return the whole string as the type — hits the default case and throws. It means the operation was queued with a target this code cannot push to.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/drydock/operation/DrydockLandRepositoryOperation.php:105

      $commit_message = id(new ConduitCall($api_method, $api_params))
        ->setUser($viewer)
        ->execute();
    } else {
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'Invalid or unknown object ("%s") for land operation, expected '.
          'Differential Revision.',
          $operation->getObjectPHID()));
    }

    $target = $operation->getRepositoryTarget();
    list($type, $name) = explode(':', $target, 2);
    switch ($type) {
      case 'branch':
        $push_dst = 'refs/heads/'.$name;
        break;
      default:
        throw new Exception(
          pht(
            'Unknown repository operation target type "%s" (in target "%s").',
            $type,
            $target));
    }

    $committer_info = $this->getCommitterInfo($operation);

    // NOTE: We're doing this commit with "-F -" so we don't run into trouble
    // with enormous commit messages which might otherwise exceed the maximum
    // size of a command.

    $future = $interface->getExecFuture(
      'git -c user.name=%s -c user.email=%s commit --author %s -F - --',
      $committer_info['name'],
      $committer_info['email'],
      "{$author_name} <{$author_email}>");

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Set the target to a branch form: `setRepositoryTarget('branch:'.$branch_name)` — landing only supports branches in this implementation
2. If you need tag/bookmark destinations, extend the switch in applyOperation to map them to the appropriate refs and validate upstream
3. Validate the target format (contains exactly one leading 'branch:' segment) before enqueueing the operation
4. Inspect the failing operation's target property to see the exact string that was rejected

Example fix

// before
$operation->setRepositoryTarget('stable'); // no type prefix
$impl->applyOperation($operation, $interface);
// Exception: Unknown repository operation target type "stable" (in target "stable").

// after
$operation->setRepositoryTarget('branch:stable');
$impl->applyOperation($operation, $interface);

// Validate target before queueing/executing the operation:
function isValidLandTarget($target) {
  if (!preg_match('/^branch:[^:]+$/', $target)) {
    return false;
  }
  list($type, $name) = explode(':', $target, 2);
  return $type === 'branch' && strlen($name) > 0;
}

if (!isValidLandTarget($operation->getRepositoryTarget())) {
  // reject/correct before applyOperation() runs
}

catch (Exception $ex) { on 'Unknown repository operation target type', inspect the operation's target property; rewrite it to 'branch:<name>' and re-queue, or extend the implementation's switch for new types }

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a DrydockRepositoryOperation with setRepositoryTarget('tag:v1') or 'bookmark:default'; passing a bare branch name like 'master' (no 'branch:' prefix, so $type becomes 'master'); custom UI/Harbormaster code constructing targets with a new type that the land implementation has not taught.

Common situations: Mercurial bookmarks or Git tags being requested as land destinations; third-party extensions adding target types without extending DrydockLandRepositoryOperation; malformed target strings from manually-inserted operation rows.

Related errors

• Repository ("%s") has unsupported VCS ("%s").
• Invalid or unknown object ("%s") for land operation, expecte
• Unable to load diff "%s".
• Diff ("%s") has wrong revision ID ("%s", expected "%s").
• Unexpected number of output lines from "git diff-tree" when

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/34f6a85945c9472c. Report an issue: GitHub.