Improvements to push_files tool

[almaleksia]

Summary

This PR aims to significantly reduce failure rate for push_files tool.

1. Added auto-init of repository if it is empty.
2. Added auto-creation of branch if it doesn't exist

Why

push_files tool fails too often due to rigid assumptions that both ref that files are pushed to exists and repo is not empty. However, it is very often not the case and we shouldn't fail on such common cases.

MCP impact

• No tool or API changes
• Tool schema or behavior changed
• New tool added

Prompts tested (tool changes only)

Security / limits

• No security or limits impact
• Auth / permissions considered
• Data exposure, filtering, or token/size limits considered

Lint & tests

• Linted locally with ./script/lint
• Tested locally with ./script/test

Docs

• Not needed
• Updated (README / docs / examples)

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR enhances the push_files tool to automatically handle two common failure scenarios: empty repositories and non-existent branches. Instead of failing when encountering these conditions, the tool now initializes empty repositories with an initial commit and creates missing branches from the default branch.

Key changes:

• Added auto-initialization of empty repositories when a 409 Conflict status is detected
• Added auto-creation of branches from the default branch when a branch is not found
• Improved error handling and resource cleanup with nil checks before closing response bodies

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
pkg/github/repositories.go	Implements auto-init logic for empty repositories and auto-creation of non-existent branches; adds two helper functions initializeRepository and createReferenceFromDefaultBranch
pkg/github/repositories_test.go	Adds comprehensive test coverage for empty repository scenarios, branch auto-creation failures, and updates existing test expectations to match new behavior

[SamMorrowDrums]

It's too big for me to review while off, but really nice improvement!

[SamMorrowDrums]

This is great, I'd just like to see a few more function description comments, perhaps reduce the body size with a little more function extraction, and I was wondering if it might be preferable to create a new file to put some of the helper funcs in? This file is getting very large. Alternative might be to put the whole lot in repositories_create_file file, as it doesn't have to be a file per toolset. WDYT?

[bretthowell714-source]

- Ksenia created a PR to improve the push_files tool by adding auto-init and branch creation. - Copilot and Sam offered reviews, suggesting fixes and - - - - more function extraction.

On Mon, Jan 5, 2026, 3:40 AM Ksenia Bobrova ***@***.***> wrote: ***@***.**** commented on this pull request. ------------------------------ In pkg/github/repositories.go <#1676 (comment)> : > + return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get repository: %w", err) + } + if resp != nil && resp.Body != nil { + defer func() { _ = resp.Body.Close() }() + } + + defaultBranch := repository.GetDefaultBranch() + + fileOpts := &github.RepositoryContentFileOptions{ + Message: github.Ptr("Initial commit"), + Content: []byte(""), + Branch: github.Ptr(defaultBranch), + } + + // Create an initial empty commit to create the default branch + createResp, resp, err := client.Repositories.CreateFile(ctx, owner, repo, "README.md", fileOpts) yeah, I've been trying different options but none of them worked. It appears that we need an empty file. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1676 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/B2QS3PQ53MQRCMK4OVAYU5L4FJESRAVCNFSM6AAAAACPZUHXEWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43YUDVNRWFEZLROVSXG5CSMV3GSZLXHMZTMMRWGUYTKMRWGI> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

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[almaleksia]

@SamMorrowDrums extracted helpers to a separate file

[SamMorrowDrums]

Nice work @almaleksia 🤞 it makes a big dent in errors. It is such a common issue. Even regular folks get confused by unitialized repos sometimes.