theonedev/onedev · error · NotAcceptableException

No default branch in project:

Error message

No default branch in project: 

What it means

Thrown by RunProjectJobAction.execute when the target project has no default branch configured. A RunProjectJobAction with no explicit branch/tag resolves the project's default branch to run the job against; if the project is empty or has no default branch set, OneDev throws this NotAcceptableException to abort the action.

Source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/buildspec/job/action/RunProjectJobAction.java:216

		if (accessToken == null)
			throw new NotAcceptableException("Invalid access token");
		
		var subject = accessToken.asSubject();
		if (!SecurityUtils.canRunJob(subject, project, jobName))		
			throw new UnauthorizedException();

		var user = SecurityUtils.getUser(subject);
		ThreadContext.bind(subject);
		try {
			String refName;
			if (branch != null) {
				refName = GitUtils.branch2ref(branch);
			} else if (tag != null) {
				refName = GitUtils.tag2ref(tag);
			} else {
				var defaultBranch = project.getDefaultBranch();
				if (defaultBranch == null)
 					throw new NotAcceptableException("No default branch in project: " + project.getPath());
				refName = GitUtils.branch2ref(defaultBranch);
			}
			var commit = project.getRevCommit(refName, false);
			if (commit == null)
				throw new NotAcceptableException("Ref not found (project: " + project.getPath() + ", ref: " + refName + ")");
						
			Map<String, List<String>> jobParamMap = new HashMap<>();
			for (var jobParam: jobParams) {
				jobParamMap.computeIfAbsent(jobParam.getName(), k -> new ArrayList<>()).add(jobParam.getValue());
			}
			
			getJobService().submit(user, project, commit.copy(), jobName, jobParamMap, refName, null, null, 
					"Triggered via post build action of job '" + build.getJobName() + "' in project '" + build.getProject().getPath() + "'");
		} finally {
			ThreadContext.unbindSubject();
		}		
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to d44925c47c)

Solutions

1. Set a default branch for the target project (Project -> Branches / default branch setting).
2. Push at least one commit to the target project so a branch exists.
3. Explicitly specify a 'branch' or 'tag' in the RunProjectJobAction so it doesn't rely on the default branch.
4. Verify the project path in the action points to the intended, non-empty project.

Example fix

// before (buildspec.yml)
actions:
- type: RunProjectJob
  project: my-sub-project

// after
actions:
- type: RunProjectJob
  project: my-sub-project
  branch: main

if (project.getDefaultBranch() == null) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Target project '" + project.getPath() + "' has no default branch; set one or specify branch in the action");
}

try {
    runProjectJobAction.execute(build, context);
} catch (NotAcceptableException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("No default branch in project")) {
        // surface a config-fix hint to the pipeline author
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A run-project job action targets a project whose branch/tag are both null and project.getDefaultBranch() returns null — e.g. an empty repository, or a project whose default branch was deleted or never set.

Common situations: Configuring a pipeline in a newly created empty project; renaming/deleting the default branch without updating project settings; referencing another project that hasn't had its first push yet.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Ref not found (project:
• Malformed build spec (import project: {0}, import revision:
• Build spec not defined (import project: {0}, import revision
• Error validating issue fields:
• Error validating job parameters (job: %s, error message: %s)

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/05befdda42d74481. Report an issue: GitHub.