Hacktoberfest 2026: the issues maintainers tagged for October, open and beginner-friendly. Browse Hacktoberfest issues

[Bug] Windows repository cloning fails while creating an existing drive root

Open Beginner friendly
  • Is something wrong?
#17,927 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Maintainers usually reply within 1 day

@pujitha24 is already working on this.

Since Oct 11, 2026.

  • #18265 by @pujitha24 — open

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
73/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
electron, node.js, typescript
Domain
backend, desktop

Research direction

Read apps/server/src/sourceControl/SourceControlRepositoryService.ts, especially prepareDestination at lines 221–247. Reproduce on Windows with a new destination directly under an existing drive root and check how parent directory preparation handles that root. Done means the destination is prepared and cloning proceeds without the EPERM error.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

What happened

T3 Code's desktop app on Windows could not clone https://github.com/xMrAfonso/comark-loops. The user reported: "For some reason it doesn't clone projects from my github."

Diagnosis

The latest failed attempt stops in destination preparation, before Git starts cloning. The server attempts a recursive directory creation at the drive root, and Windows returns EPERM: operation not permitted, mkdir 'C:\'.

In SourceControlRepositoryService.prepareDestination, a destination that does not exist causes an unconditional fileSystem.makeDirectory(path.dirname(normalizedDestination), { recursive: true }). For a new folder directly under C:\, its parent is the existing drive root. The code does not first check whether that parent already exists.

Source inspected: https://github.com/pingdotgg/t3code/blob/4f63275ac7885281d245022e65f1e9e8816b1382/apps/server/src/sourceControl/SourceControlRepositoryService.ts#L221-L247

The same failure occurred three times in the local trace. Git access to the repository was verified independently, and a manual clone into a nested directory succeeded. This supports a destination-preparation failure for these attempts, rather than a repository access failure.

A possible fix is to avoid creating an already-existing parent directory, including a Windows drive root. This has not been implemented or tested during triage.

Steps to reproduce

The following minimal reproduction is inferred from the trace and source, and has not been independently repeated in the UI. The original destination input was not captured.

  1. Run the Windows desktop app.
  2. Open Add project and choose to clone a GitHub repository.
  3. Use https://github.com/xMrAfonso/comark-loops.
  4. Choose a new destination directly under the drive root, for example C:\comark-loops.
  5. Start the clone.

Expected: the repository is cloned into the new destination.

Observed in the user's trace: preparation fails while attempting mkdir 'C:\', before Git clone runs. The client receives the generic message: Source control repository operation cloneRepository failed for unknown: The source control operation could not be completed.

Version

  • Desktop renderer reports: 0.0.46-nightly.20261010.2935.
  • Separately invoked triage CLI: 0.0.46-nightly.20261010.2948 (npx t3@nightly triage).
  • Diagnosis source checkout: tag v0.0.46-nightly.20261010.2948, commit 4f63275ac7885281d245022e65f1e9e8816b1382; the destination-preparation code above is still present there.

Environment

Windows x64, version 10.0.26200; Node v26.8.2 in the triage context. Electron desktop app with a running local backend.

Evidence

Relevant server trace entries (UTC), with filesystem and provider wrappers summarized and personal paths omitted:

2026-10-10T17:51:19.915Z SourceControlRepositoryService.prepareDestination: Failure
2026-10-10T17:51:29.714Z SourceControlRepositoryService.prepareDestination: Failure
2026-10-10T21:40:08.524Z SourceControlRepositoryService.prepareDestination: Failure

PlatformError: Unknown: FileSystem.makeDirectory (C:\)
[cause]: Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, mkdir 'C:\'

Failure propagates through:
SourceControlRepositoryService.prepareClone
ProjectCloneTracker.start
ws.rpc.projectClone.start

Independent Git check:

git ls-remote https://github.com/xMrAfonso/comark-loops.git HEAD
b8f501e40534e81d4026b28d686a7b9f2ac1173b HEAD

Related issues

No matching issue was found in searches for clone failures involving Windows, EPERM, mkdir, or prepareDestination. This report concerns preparation of the clone destination before Git executes.

Fix applied or workaround

Ran:

git clone https://github.com/xMrAfonso/comark-loops.git C:\Central\VSC\comark-loops

The clone succeeded, with a clean checkout tracking origin/master at b8f501e40534e81d4026b28d686a7b9f2ac1173b. The user was instructed to add that checkout through Add project -> Local folder; that UI step has not been verified. No T3 source, configuration, or database was modified.

Filed by

Codex (GPT-6.1 Sol) via T3 Code triage.

Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
24.8k
Forks
6.4k
Avg merge
5h 30m
Merged PRs (30d)
215

Getting set up

Open in Codespaces

Starts the project's dev container in your browser, under your own GitHub account.

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from pingdotgg/t3code

All issues in pingdotgg/t3code

Similar issues

More TypeScript issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.