# Launching Github repo into Binder fails

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/launching-github-repo-into-binder-fails/24859>\
**Category:** Binder\
**Created:** [March 28, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/launching-github-repo-into-binder-fails/24859 "2024-03-28T17:30:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![djwang826](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/djwang826/32/12922_2.png) [@djwang826](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/djwang826)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/launching-github-repo-into-binder-fails/24859/1 "2024-03-28T17:30:38Z")

</div>

Hi!

When trying to launch my GitHub repo into Binder on a specific branch, I got the error message of

```auto
Spec is not of the form "user/repo/ref", provided: "https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.gatech.edu%2Fjzhan44%2Fcs6440_forgetful_spiders/voila_deployment_testing". Did you mean "https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.gatech.edu%2Fjzhan44%2Fcs6440_forgetful_spiders/voila_deployment_testing/HEAD"?

```

My repo says that it is public, and I think I have the repo URL of [https://github.gatech.edu/jzhan44/cs6440\_forgetful\_spiders](https://github.gatech.edu/jzhan44/cs6440_forgetful_spiders) correctly input, so I am not sure what could be going wrong.

Current inputs:

GitHub repository name or URL:  
[https://github.gatech.edu/jzhan44/cs6440\_forgetful\_spiders](https://github.gatech.edu/jzhan44/cs6440_forgetful_spiders)

Git branch, tag, or commit: voila\_deployment\_testing  
Path to a notebook file (optional): project.ipynb

Thank you so much in advance for any help!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fomightez](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/fomightez/32/495_2.png) [@fomightez](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/fomightez)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/launching-github-repo-into-binder-fails/24859/2 "2024-03-28T18:51:50Z")

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> [@djwang826](#):
>
> `https://github.gatech.edu/jzhan44/cs6440_forgetful_spiders`

That isn’t a public repo. `https://github.gatech.edu/` probably requires campus sign-in.  
You can always try it from an incognito browser window and/or off your campus network to try and test.