All builds are failing with the same error - github Permission denied
Hi,
All our current builds are failing due to a Git issue when appveyor is trying to clone the repo. We are using the 'Visual Studio 2022' build image. We tried re-adding some projects from GitHub as fresh ones and even switching to the 'Previous Visual Studio 2022' image, but the build process continues to fail.
Build started
git clone -q --branch=feature/xxxx git@github.com:ExampleOrg/ExampleProject.git C:\projects\example-project
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
Command exited with code 128
Thanks in advance.
Jorge
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Support Staff 1 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 21 Jul, 2026 03:07 PM
Hi Jorge,
I see the last few builds are green. Are you still experiencing that error?
2 Posted by jorge on 22 Jul, 2026 08:34 AM
Hello.
We've restored AppVeyor's access to our GitHub organization by installing it as a GitHub App rather than at the user level, and it appears to be working again.
Support Staff 3 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 23 Jul, 2026 02:29 PM
Good, thanks for the update!
4 Posted by jorge on 23 Jul, 2026 04:41 PM
Hi Feodor,
When attempting to launch a new build for a project that is using a machine hosted on our end (BYOC with a Windows Agent on an Azure VM), the process failed and got stuck indefinitely while trying to clone the repository. I assume that using AppVeyor through the GitHub App does not work in this scenario; or do we need to update the agent?
To restore access to GitHub, I had to fall back to the traditional method, granting permissions through a user account rather than the GitHub App.
Regards
Support Staff 5 Posted by Feodor Fitsner on 24 Jul, 2026 04:02 PM
Hi Jorge,
When using GitHub App a private repo is cloned with GitHub App installation token. I guess you probably need to unset credential store which is on by default on Git for Windows: https://github.com/appveyor/build-images/blob/master/scripts/Window...
Hope that helps.