[Bug]: New-project GitHub publishing selects SSH despite working HTTPS authentication #18701

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate for new-project publishing.
• I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/web and apps/server

Steps to reproduce

1. On the T3 server's machine, authenticate GitHub CLI over HTTPS and configure its Git credential helper. Confirm gh config get git_protocol returns https and HTTPS access to a private repository works.
2. Use a machine without a GitHub SSH key or a github.com entry in known_hosts.
3. In T3, create a project from a name and enable the GitHub repository option.
4. T3 creates the local project and its initial commit, creates the private GitHub repository, attaches an SSH origin, and fails to push.
5. Try pushing the project's existing commits from T3. The push fails again with host_key_unverified.

Expected behavior

Creating and publishing a GitHub project should work with the authenticated HTTPS setup. The default should be consistent with GitHub's HTTPS clone default, or respect the user's configured Git protocol. Explicit SSH selection can remain available.

Actual behavior

The GitHub repository exists but is empty. The local project has commits, an SSH remote, and no upstream. T3 reports that it could not create the repository even though creation succeeded. Its suggested recovery is to use Publish Repository in the Git menu, but that action is unavailable once origin exists.

The cause is present in the source for the installed release:

• useNewProject.ts:48 calls publishRepository without a protocol.
• SourceControlRepositoryService.ts:153 maps the omitted protocol to auto, then selects sshUrl.
• SourceControlRepositoryService.ts:405 creates the remote repository and adds the remote before attempting the push.

Related: #4203 was closed after fixing GitHub cloning to default to HTTPS. This report covers new-project publishing, which still takes the SSH path in this release. #13350 concerns GitLab cloning.

Impact

Major degradation or frequent failure. New-project GitHub publishing fails on a machine with working HTTPS authentication, and subsequent pushes remain blocked.

Version or commit

0.0.46-nightly.20261011.2994, release commit d07a07f33c0a1b317dea6234636976231c3688b5.

Environment

Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS, x86_64; Git 2.53.0; GitHub CLI 2.102.0; headless t3 serve; private GitHub repository; GitHub CLI Git protocol https.

Logs or stack traces

Relevant server trace entries from 2026-10-12, with local paths redacted:

15:46:56 UTC — Git command failed in GitVcsDriver.pushCurrentBranch.pushWithRequestedRemote (<project>): Git command exited with a non-zero status. (host_key_unverified)
16:00:35 UTC — Git command failed in GitVcsDriver.pushCurrentBranch.pushWithUpstream (<project>): Git command exited with a non-zero status. (host_key_unverified)

gh config get git_protocol
https

git ls-remote origin
Host key verification failed.
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Workaround

Switch this project's remote to HTTPS and push the existing commits:

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/OWNER/REPO.git
git push --set-upstream origin main

This succeeded on the affected machine. The private repository now has main; its remote SHA matches local HEAD, and the clean local branch tracks origin/main. No new or empty commit was needed.