Could not find an available remote name for ${preferred}.

Error message

Could not find an available remote name for ${preferred}.

What it means

Thrown by ensureUniqueRemoteName when the preferred git remote name and all suffixed variants (preferred-2 through preferred-99) already exist in the repository's remote list. The function lists existing remotes via `git remote`, and only after exhausting 98 candidate names does it give up. This is a guard against flooding a repo with colliding remote names during automated worktree push-target setup.

Source

Thrown at src/main/ipc/worktree-push-target-setup.ts:69

  preferred: string
): Promise<string> {
  const { stdout } = await execGit(['remote'], repoPath)
  const existing = new Set(
    stdout
      .split(/\r?\n/)
      .map((line) => line.trim())
      .filter(Boolean)
  )
  if (!existing.has(preferred)) {
    return preferred
  }
  for (let suffix = 2; suffix < 100; suffix += 1) {
    const candidate = `${preferred}-${suffix}`
    if (!existing.has(candidate)) {
      return candidate
    }
  }
  throw new Error(`Could not find an available remote name for ${preferred}.`)
}

// Exported for unit tests: the `execGit` seam drives the remote add/reuse/fetch
// behavior without a real repo. `isRemoteCreatedByKnownWorktree` lets the caller
// inject the store-aware ownership decision for the reuse case.
export async function prepareWorktreePushTargetWithExec(
  execGit: GitRemoteExec,
  repoPath: string,
  target: GitPushTarget,
  isRemoteCreatedByKnownWorktree: (existingRemote: string) => boolean
): Promise<GitPushTarget> {
  const { remoteCreated: _ignoredRemoteCreated, ...sanitizedTarget } = target
  let remoteName = target.remoteName
  let remoteCreated = false
  if (target.remoteUrl) {
    const existingRemote = await findRemoteForUrl(execGit, repoPath, target.remoteUrl)
    if (existingRemote) {
      remoteName = existingRemote

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

Remove stale/unused remotes with `git remote remove <name>` to free up the namespace, then retry.
Choose a different preferred name that does not collide.
If this is expected for your workflow, raise the suffix ceiling or implement a UUID-suffixed fallback in a wrapper.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const existing = (await execGit(['remote'], repoPath)).stdout.split(/\r?\n/).filter(Boolean)
if (existing.length > 90) {
  // warn or clean up stale remotes before attempting ensureUniqueRemoteName
}

Try / catch

try {
  remoteName = await ensureUniqueRemoteName(execGit, repoPath, preferred)
} catch (e) {
  if (/Could not find an available remote name/.test((e as Error).message)) {
    remoteName = `${preferred}-${crypto.randomUUID().slice(0, 8)}`
  } else throw e
}

Prevention

Periodically prune stale remotes created by worktree push-target setup.
Choose a distinctive preferred name to avoid collisions.
Warn the user when the remote count grows large, indicating cleanup is needed.

When it happens

Trigger: ensureUniqueRemoteName(execGit, repoPath, preferred) where `git remote` returns a set containing 'preferred', 'preferred-2', ..., 'preferred-99'. The loop from suffix 2..99 finds no gap, so the throw fires.

Common situations: A repo accumulated 99+ similarly-named remotes from repeated worktree/push-target setup without cleanup. An automation loop kept adding remotes. A migration/import created many colliding remotes. Realistically this indicates stale-remote accumulation that should be cleaned.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/544acd7b829963d4. Report an issue: GitHub.