Git fatal: not a git repository

1. About the error
2. Why do I see this error
3. Solution
4. Check where you are
5. Initialise a new repository
6. Clone instead, if the project lives on a remote
7. Find the repository root from a subdirectory

#About the error

fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

Git commands operate on a repository, identified by a .git directory. When you run a git command, git looks in the current directory and walks up through the parents searching for .git. If it never finds one, you get this error.

#Why do I see this error

• You're in the wrong directory, outside the project, or one level above it.
• The directory was never initialised as a git repository.
• The .git directory was deleted (sometimes accidentally, sometimes by an over-broad clean).
• You cloned into a subdirectory and are running git from the parent.

#Solution

#Check where you are

First confirm your location and whether a .git directory exists here:

pwd
ls -la       # look for a .git entry

If you don't see .git, you're either in the wrong place or this isn't a repo. cd into the actual project directory:

cd ~/Sites/my-project
git status

#Initialise a new repository

If this directory should be a repository but never was, create one:

git init

#Clone instead, if the project lives on a remote

If the code already exists on GitHub and you just don't have it locally, clone it rather than init:

git clone git@github.com:you/my-project.git
cd my-project

#Find the repository root from a subdirectory

If you're somewhere inside a repo but a parent got confused, this prints the top level (or errors if you're truly outside one):

git rev-parse --show-toplevel

If you recently saw refusing to merge unrelated histories and then this, a deleted or recreated .git directory is a likely common cause.