How to fix remote: abuse detection mechanism triggered in Git

The first and simplest solution is to wait. GitHub's abuse detection is temporary, and access is typically restored within a few minutes.

Recommended approach:
1. Stop all GitHub/Git operations immediately
2. Wait at least 1-5 minutes before retrying
3. If the error persists, wait 15-30 minutes

Check the Retry-After header:
If you're making API requests programmatically, check for the Retry-After HTTP header in the response:

# Example: Check headers from a failed request
curl -I https://api.github.com/user 2>&1 | grep -i retry-after

The header value tells you exactly how many seconds to wait:

Retry-After: 60

This means wait 60 seconds before trying again.

Unauthenticated requests have much lower rate limits (60/hour) and are more likely to trigger abuse detection. Always use authentication.

For Git operations, use a Personal Access Token (PAT):

1. Go to GitHub Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens
2. Generate a new token with appropriate scopes (repo, workflow)
3. Use it in your Git URL or credential helper

Configure Git to use your token:

# Using credential helper (recommended)
git config --global credential.helper store

# Then when prompted, use your username and PAT as password
git push origin main

For HTTPS URLs:

# Include token in URL (less secure, avoid in shared environments)
git clone https://[email protected]/user/repo.git

# Or use URL format
git clone https://oauth2:[email protected]/user/repo.git

For GitHub CLI:

gh auth login
gh auth status  # Verify you're authenticated

Authenticated users get 5,000 API requests/hour vs 60/hour for unauthenticated.

If you're using scripts or automation, add delays between requests. GitHub recommends processing requests serially with at least 1 second between mutating operations.

Shell script example:

#!/bin/bash
# Add delay between Git operations
for repo in repo1 repo2 repo3; do
  git clone "https://github.com/user/$repo.git"
  sleep 2  # Wait 2 seconds between clones
done

Python example with exponential backoff:

import time
import requests
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry

def github_request_with_retry(url, headers):
    session = requests.Session()
    retries = Retry(
        total=5,
        backoff_factor=1,  # 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 seconds
        status_forcelist=[403, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504]
    )
    session.mount('https://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries))
    return session.get(url, headers=headers)

Node.js example:

const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

async function githubRequest(urls) {
  for (const url of urls) {
    const response = await fetch(url, { headers });
    if (response.status === 403) {
      const retryAfter = response.headers.get('Retry-After') || 60;
      await delay(retryAfter * 1000);
      // Retry the request
    }
    await delay(1000);  // 1 second between requests
  }
}

GitHub's documentation explicitly states: "Make requests for a single user or client ID serially. Do not make requests for a single user or client ID concurrently."

Bad approach (concurrent):

// DON'T DO THIS - triggers abuse detection
await Promise.all([
  fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo1'),
  fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo2'),
  fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo3'),
]);

Good approach (sequential):

// DO THIS - sequential with delays
const repos = ['repo1', 'repo2', 'repo3'];
for (const repo of repos) {
  await fetch(`https://api.github.com/repos/user/${repo}`);
  await delay(1000);
}

For CI/CD pipelines:
- Avoid parallel jobs that all hit GitHub simultaneously
- Use caching to reduce the number of API calls
- Stagger job start times if possible
- Use GitHub's built-in caching actions

GitHub can better track and manage your requests if you use a descriptive User-Agent header. This helps distinguish legitimate tools from potential abuse.

Example with curl:

curl -H "User-Agent: MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])" \
     -H "Authorization: token YOUR_TOKEN" \
     https://api.github.com/user

Example with Python requests:

import requests

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])',
    'Authorization': 'token YOUR_TOKEN'
}
response = requests.get('https://api.github.com/user', headers=headers)

For Go applications:
Go's default HTTP client uses Go-http-client/1.1 as the User-Agent, which is common and may contribute to rate limiting. Always set a custom one:

req.Header.Set("User-Agent", "MyGoApp/1.0")

Reduce the total number of API calls by using GitHub's features efficiently:

Use conditional requests (ETags):

# First request - save the ETag
curl -I https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo
# Response includes: ETag: "abc123"

# Subsequent requests - use If-None-Match
curl -H "If-None-Match: \"abc123\"" \
     https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo
# Returns 304 Not Modified if unchanged (doesn't count against limit)

Batch where possible:
- Use GraphQL API for fetching multiple resources in one request
- Use per_page=100 to get maximum results per request

Cache responses:

# Store GitHub API responses locally
mkdir -p ~/.github-cache

# Check cache before making requests
if [ -f ~/.github-cache/repo-info.json ]; then
  cat ~/.github-cache/repo-info.json
else
  curl https://api.github.com/repos/user/repo > ~/.github-cache/repo-info.json
fi

Clone repositories instead of using API:
For getting repository contents, cloning is often more efficient than multiple API calls:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/user/repo.git

If you're on a corporate network, VPN, or shared hosting, multiple users' requests may be aggregated under one IP, triggering abuse detection faster.

Solutions:

1. Use authenticated requests: Each user should use their own PAT to separate their quota
2. Coordinate with team members: Avoid running bulk operations simultaneously
3. Use GitHub Actions: Actions run on GitHub's infrastructure with separate limits
4. Consider GitHub Enterprise: Enterprise accounts have higher limits and dedicated support

For CI/CD on shared runners:

# GitHub Actions - use built-in token
- name: Checkout
  uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Check your current rate limit:

curl -H "Authorization: token YOUR_TOKEN" \
     https://api.github.com/rate_limit

This shows remaining requests across different API categories.

IDE plugins and third-party tools can make background GitHub requests that contribute to rate limits.

Common culprits:
- VS Code GitHub extensions: GitHub Pull Requests, GitLens
- JetBrains IDE GitHub integration
- GitHub Desktop: Auto-fetch and sync operations
- Package managers: npm, yarn, pip checking GitHub for packages
- CLI tools: hub, gh, git-extras

To diagnose:

1. Disable GitHub-related IDE extensions temporarily
2. Close GitHub Desktop and other Git GUI tools
3. Check if the error persists

VS Code - disable GitHub features:

// settings.json
{
  "github.copilot.enable": false,
  "git.autofetch": false,
  "githubPullRequests.enabled": false
}

After resolving the immediate issue, re-enable features one at a time to identify which one caused excessive requests.