semaphoreui/semaphore · error

repository does not exist in repositories[].name

Error message

repository does not exist in repositories[].name

What it means

Thrown by BackupTemplate.Verify when the template's inline repository reference (e.Repository) is not found by name in backup.Repositories. Templates reference a repository by name, and this check guarantees the referenced repository exists before restore proceeds.

Solutions

1. Add the missing repository to backup.Repositories with the exact name the template references.
2. Update the template's repository field to an existing repositories[].name.
3. Delete the template from the backup if it is no longer needed.

Example fix

// before
"templates": [{"name": "build", "repository": "app-repo"}], "repositories": []
// after
"templates": [{"name": "build", "repository": "app-repo"}], "repositories": [{"name": "app-repo"}]

for _, t := range backup.Templates {
  if !repoNameExists(t.Repository.Name, backup.Repositories) {
    return fmt.Errorf("template %q references missing repository %q", t.Name, t.Repository.Name)
  }
}

func repoNameExists(name string, repos []BackupRepository) bool {
  for _, r := range repos {
    if r.Name == name { return true }
  }
  return false
}

if err := tmpl.Verify(backup); err != nil {
  if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "repository does not exist") {
    // add the repository or fix the reference, then retry
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Verify on a BackupFormat whose templates[] entry points at a repositories[] name that does not exist — repository omitted from the export, renamed, or typo in the template's repository field.

Common situations: Migrating a single template without its repository; renaming a repository after backup; hand-merging backups from two projects; export filters that dropped repositories but kept templates.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• deploy is build but build_template does not exist in…
• inventory does not exist in inventories[].name
• vault_key does not exist in keys[].name
• vaults[].vaultKey does not exist in keys[].name
• view does not exist in views[].name

AI-assisted analysis of semaphoreui/semaphore@1774ccb71a (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7373c3d308d2343d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at services/project/restore.go:249

	repo := e.Repository
	repo.ProjectID = b.meta.ID
	repo.SSHKeyID = SSHKeyID

	newRepo, err := b.store.CreateRepository(repo)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	b.repositories = append(b.repositories, newRepo)
	return nil
}

func (e BackupTemplate) Verify(backup *BackupFormat) error {
	if err := verifyDuplicate[BackupTemplate](e.Name, backup.Templates); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if getEntryByName[BackupRepository](&e.Repository, backup.Repositories) == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("repository does not exist in repositories[].name")
	}

	if e.Inventory != nil && getEntryByName[BackupInventory](e.Inventory, backup.Inventories) == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("inventory does not exist in inventories[].name")
	}

	if e.VaultKey != nil && getEntryByName[BackupAccessKey](e.VaultKey, backup.Keys) == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("vault_key does not exist in keys[].name")
	}

	if e.Vaults != nil {
		for _, vault := range e.Vaults {
			if vault.VaultKey != nil {
				if getEntryByName[BackupAccessKey](vault.VaultKey, backup.Keys) == nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("vaults[].vaultKey does not exist in keys[].name")
				}
			}
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 1774ccb71a)