stablyai/orca · error

GitHub work items require a GitHub remote for SSH repositori

Error message

GitHub work items require a GitHub remote for SSH repositories

What it means

Thrown by assertSshRepoHasResolvedGitHubSource when a repository is reached over an SSH connection (connectionId set) but neither issueOwnerRepo nor prOwnerRepo could be resolved to an owner/repo pair. SSH repo paths are remote-only, so without a resolved owner/repo the gh CLI would silently fall back to querying local git state and return wrong results. The constant GITHUB_WORK_ITEMS_SSH_REMOTE_REQUIRED_MESSAGE is reused so callers can pattern-match it.

Source

Thrown at src/main/github/client.ts:1198

}

// Why: shared shape so listWorkItems can lift per-side errors (#1076 silent wrongness) into the IPC envelope — a swallowed side reads as end-of-data to pagination (#11485).
type PartialWorkItemsResult = {
  items: MainWorkItem[]
  issuesError?: ClassifiedError
  prsError?: ClassifiedError
}

function assertSshRepoHasResolvedGitHubSource(args: {
  connectionId?: string | null
  issueOwnerRepo: OwnerRepo | null
  prOwnerRepo: OwnerRepo | null
}): void {
  if (!args.connectionId || args.issueOwnerRepo || args.prOwnerRepo) {
    return
  }
  // Why: SSH repo paths are remote-only, so without a resolved owner/repo gh would query local state.
  throw new Error(GITHUB_WORK_ITEMS_SSH_REMOTE_REQUIRED_MESSAGE)
}

type ResolvedPrWorkItemSource = {
  source: OwnerRepo | null
  originCandidate: OwnerRepo | null
  upstreamCandidate: OwnerRepo | null
}

async function resolvePrWorkItemSource(
  repoPath: string,
  preference: IssueSourcePreference | undefined,
  connectionId?: string | null,
  localGitOptions: LocalGitExecOptions = {}
): Promise<ResolvedPrWorkItemSource> {
  const [originCandidate, upstreamCandidate] = await Promise.all([
    getOriginGitHubApiRepository(repoPath, connectionId, localGitOptions),
    getGitHubApiRepositoryForRemote(repoPath, 'upstream', connectionId, localGitOptions)
  ])

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

1. On the SSH host, run `git remote -v` and confirm an `origin` (or upstream) URL of the form `git@github.com:owner/repo.git` or `https://github.com/owner/repo`.
2. If the remote is not GitHub, GitHub work items (PRs/issues) are not available for this target — that is expected.
3. If the remote is correct but stale, re-fetch and let Orca re-resolve; for a renamed repo, update the remote URL with `git remote set-url`.
4. Reconnect to the SSH target so the relay re-enumerates remotes.

// Pre-resolve owner/repo and fail fast with a clearer message.
async function resolveGitHubOwnerRepo(repoPath: string): Promise<OwnerRepo | null> {
  const url = await getOriginUrl(repoPath)
  return parseGitHubOwnerRepo(url) // returns null for non-GitHub URLs
}

function hasResolvedOwnerRepo(o: unknown): o is { owner: string; repo: string } {
  return !!o && typeof o === 'object' &&
    typeof (o as any).owner === 'string' && typeof (o as any).repo === 'string'
}

try {
  await loadGitHubWorkItems(repoPath, connectionId)
} catch (err) {
  if ((err as Error).message === GITHUB_WORK_ITEMS_SSH_REMOTE_REQUIRED_MESSAGE) {
    showNonGitHubTargetNotice()
  } else throw err
}

When it happens

Trigger: SSH target whose remote URL is not a GitHub URL (e.g. a private Gerrit or bare ssh URL); the GitHub remote was renamed or transferred and the cached owner/repo is stale; remote URL parsing failed for an scp-style URL with an unusual port or path; the SSH relay could not enumerate remotes.

Common situations: SSHing into a box whose repo has no GitHub origin; a fork was renamed upstream; ssh-host git remote uses git@custom-host:alias that the parser can't map to owner/repo; relay connection dropped before remote enumeration completed.

Related errors

• Repo has no configured origin remote.
• SSH target "${input.target.connectionId}" is not connected.
• Cannot download a directory
• Remote connection dropped. Click Reconnect on the SSH target
• Clone failed: ${getGitCloneFailureMessage(message, { clonePa

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f96d701afefdd367. Report an issue: GitHub.