Git fatal: ‘origin’ does not appear to be a git repository Solution

By default, a Git repository is not associated with a remote repository. If you try to push changes to a remote repository without first specifying its location, you’ll encounter the “fatal: ‘origin’ does not appear to be a git repository” error.

This guide talks about why this error is raised and what it means. We’ll walk through an example of this error so you can figure out how to fix it.

fatal: ‘origin’ does not appear to be a git repository

The git init command creates a new Git repository. This command only initializes a folder as a Git repository. It does not link a repository to a remote repository.

In contrast, the git clone command does link a local repository to a remote one. This is because Git knows where the code from a project came from and uses the location you cloned to guess where you are going to be pushing commits.

The “fatal: ‘origin’ does not appear to be a git repository” error occurs when you set up a new repository and try to commit code without first instructing Git on where the code should be pushed.

An Example Scenario

We’re going to create a new repository, ck-git.

Make a new folder and initialize the folder as a Git repository:

mkdir ck-git
cd ck-git
git init

We have navigated into our new ck-git folder then we initialized a Git repository inside that folder. Now, create a file called app.py with the following contents:

print(“Test”)


Our repository now has a file we can push to our remote repository. Before we can push our code, we need to add our file to our repository and commit that file:

git add app.py
git commit -m "feat: Create app.py"

The first command adds app.py to the staging area. The second command creates a commit containing the changes made to all the files in the staging area.

Now that we’ve created a commit, we can push it to the master branch on our remote Git repo:

git push origin master


When we run this command, an error occurs:

'origin' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists.

The Solution

We have not told Git the location of the “origin” repository. We’ve initialized a new repository using “git init” and so our repository is not linked to any remote repository by default.

To fix this error, we need to manually tell Git where the remote version of our repository exists. Do this using the git remote add command:

git remote add origin https://github.com/career-karma-tutorials/ck-git


This command tells Git the remote called “origin” should be associated with a particular URL. Git now knows where the remote version of our repository exists.

Let’s try to push our code again:

git push origin master


The Git command line successfully pushes our code to our remote repository.

Conclusion

The “fatal: ‘origin’ does not appear to be a git repository” error occurs when you try to push code to a remote Git repository without telling Git the location of the remote repository.

To solve this error, use the git remote add command to add a remote to your project.

Now you have the knowledge you need to fix this error like a professional programmer.