gh repo clone of a fork adds an upstream remote and rewrites the default push target

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:51:59.601Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:51:59.601Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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When 'gh repo clone' clones a repository that is a fork, it does more than git clone. It adds a second remote named upstream pointing at the parent repository, and it sets remote.pushDefault so that pushes go to your fork rather than to upstream. It also records remote.origin.gh-resolved in the local config so later gh commands know which repository the working copy belongs to.

This is convenient interactively and confusing in automation, because a subsequent 'git push' may not target origin the way a plain git clone would. Inspect the result with 'git remote -v' and 'git config --get remote.pushDefault'.

The gh-resolved key is also why gh sometimes talks to a different repository than you expect after adding or renaming remotes. 'gh repo set-default' writes it explicitly, and it is the fix when gh reports that it cannot determine which repository to use in a checkout with several remotes.

Source: https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_repo_clone

gh-cli git cli

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