Github Auth Recovery

GitHub Auth Recovery

Diagnose GitHub auth failures before retrying commands blindly.

Quick start

1. Inspect the remote URL and current branch.
2. Check whether gh is authenticated.
3. Test whether GitHub SSH already works.
4. If SSH works, prefer SSH over broken HTTPS credential flows.
5. Fetch/rebase before pushing if the remote branch may have advanced.
6. Verify the remote commit after push.

Core workflow

1. Inspect the repo state

Run:

git remote -v
git branch --show-current
git status --short

Identify whether origin is using HTTPS or SSH.

2. Check gh separately from git

Run:

gh auth status

Important: gh being unauthenticated does not imply GitHub SSH is unavailable.

3. Check HTTPS failure mode

If the remote is HTTPS and push/pull fails, capture the actual error first.

Typical signal:

• fatal: could not read Username for 'https://github.com': Device not configured

This usually means the current HTTPS credential path is unusable in the current environment.

4. Test SSH before doing anything more complex

Run:

ssh -T git@github.com

If you get a success message like:

• Hi <user>! You've successfully authenticated...

then prefer SSH git operations instead of continuing to fight HTTPS.

5. Switch strategy, not just credentials

If SSH works:

• use SSH for git push
• you may keep origin unchanged and push directly to an SSH URL, or update the remote if appropriate

Example direct push:

git push git@github.com:owner/repo.git HEAD:main

6. Re-sync with remote before push

Do this when someone else—or another process—may have updated the remote branch while you were debugging auth.

git fetch origin main
git rebase origin/main

Do not assume auth was the only problem. A stale local base can make the next push fail even after auth is fixed.

7. Verify the outcome

After push:

• inspect local HEAD
• confirm the remote commit SHA or latest commit message

Decision rule

Use this order of preference when recovering from GitHub auth trouble:

1. working gh
2. existing working SSH auth
3. HTTPS token/credential fallback
4. only then ask the user to intervene

In practice, SSH is often the fastest recovery path on machines that already have keys configured.

Common traps

• assuming gh auth status covers all GitHub auth paths
• retrying HTTPS push repeatedly without testing SSH
• bundling file edits, token lookup, commit, and push into one huge command while debugging
• forgetting to fetch/rebase after spending time on auth recovery
• declaring success without checking the remote commit

References

• Read references/ssh-vs-https.md for the concrete recovery playbook and a real incident pattern.

Output standard

When reporting a recovered GitHub push, include:

1. what failed first
2. what auth path actually worked
3. whether a fetch/rebase was required
4. the final pushed commit SHA or URL