Git "error: src refspec main does not match any": commit first, or use the right branch name

1. No commits yet

A branch doesn’t really exist until it has a commit. After git init, you’re on a name with nothing behind it. You can try this in the terminal, in a project that’s just been through git init:

git status

On branch main

No commits yet

So commit something first:

git add .
git commit -m "First commit"
git push -u origin main

Three things can get in the way:

Nothing got staged. A .gitignore that catches everything, or an empty folder (Git doesn’t track empty folders). git status shows what’s there, and git check-ignore -v file explains why a file’s ignored. See why .gitignore doesn’t work, and the .gitignore Generator can give you a sensible file.

The commit failed. Scrolled past? A commit needs your name and email, and without them it stops with this:

Author identity unknown
*** Please tell me who you are.

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

A failing pre-commit hook also stops a commit, with its own message.

You’re in the wrong folder. A different repository, or none. git rev-parse --show-toplevel shows where you are.

2. The branch has another name

git add .
git commit -m "First commit"
git branch

* master

Many tutorials say main, and GitHub creates new repositories with main. But git init still uses master unless you’ve changed it, so the two often don’t match. You can push under the name you have:

git push -u origin master

Or rename it, which is what most people want:

git add .
git commit -m "First commit"
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Make new repositories start with main:

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Not sure what’s on the server?

git ls-remote --heads origin
git remote show origin | grep 'HEAD branch'

3. A typo, or case

Refspecs are exact, so these all fail if your branch is main:

git push origin Main
git push origin mian
git push origin feature/login     # the branch is feature/Login, or features/login

Case is a special trap on Windows and macOS, where the file system can hide it. Use the name exactly as git branch shows it, or skip typing it, as HEAD means your current branch:

git push -u origin HEAD

Pushing a tag? It has to exist locally too:

git tag
git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

4. A detached HEAD

Here git status starts with:

HEAD detached at 4f2a91c

You’ve checked out a commit rather than a branch, so main may exist, without your new work on it. Save the work on a branch:

git switch -c my-work
git push -u origin my-work

That’s what happens by default in many CI checkouts. In a pipeline, push with an explicit source and target:

git push origin HEAD:refs/heads/main

5. The first push is empty, and the remote isn’t

You’ve solved this one, and the next message appears:

! [rejected]        main -> main (fetch first)

Good news: your side’s fine now. The remote has commits you don’t, often because GitHub created a README. See git push rejected. And if Git then refuses to merge the two, see refusing to merge unrelated histories. Creating the repository empty avoids both.

A git push origin HEAD:main from a fresh repository still fails with the same message here, as HEAD doesn’t point at a commit yet. The answer is still to commit first.