Cannot add teams to repo.yml

[bheemvennapureddy]

Problem Description

What's Happening

We're managing repository-level team permissions using individual repo YAML files (e.g., Mobile.yml, Web.yml, infra.yml) under the .github/repos directory. We do not maintain any team configurations in settings.yml.

The intent is to explicitly grant certain teams (like all engineering teams) permissions to deploy to non-prod environments. For example:

# .github/repos/Prequal.yml

repository:
  name: Prequal
  teams:
    - name: SRE
      permission: maintain
    - name: "Engineering Members"
      permission: push

However, when applying these settings, we encounter the following error:

Error adding team: 422

API response:

{
  "message": "Validation Failed",
  "errors": [
    {
      "resource": "Team",
      "code": "unprocessable",
      "field": "data",
      "message": "Name must be unique for this org"
    }
  ],
  "documentation_url": "https://docs.github.com/rest/teams/teams#create-a-team",
  "status": "422"
}

This seems to happen when the team already exists or is already associated with the repository.

Expected Behavior

We want to know if there's a way to skip adding a team if it already exists or is already associated with the repository, to avoid the 422 error. Ideally, the settings app should be idempotent in this case.

---

Context

• GitHub App: Self-hosted instance of probot/settings
• Platform: GitHub Enterprise (EMU)
• Versions:
  • probot/settings: [please insert version]
  • GitHub Enterprise: [please insert version]

---

[bheemvennapureddy]

@decyjphr Can you add some thoughts ?

[decyjphr]

@bheemvennapureddy the teams element must be at the same level as repository in the repo.yml

Is that the case in your setting?

It should be something like this:

# .github/repos/Prequal.yml

repository:
  name: Prequal
  ...

teams:
  - name: SRE
    permission: maintain
  - name: "Engineering Members"
      permission: push

[bheemvennapureddy]

@decyjphr

they are at the same level

[bheemvennapureddy]

It always only complains about the "Engneering Members" team it never complained about "SRE" Team. Below is the safe settings finishes with SRE Team.

Here is the error when we add "Engineering Members" Team

logs show 422 error

[decyjphr]

@bheemvennapureddy I tried to recreate it but I couldn't. I tested by adding 2 or more teams in the repo.yml and I could see the teams being created. I must be missing something specific to your case. Does the team being added have security-manager role?

[bmike78]

@bheemvennapureddy instead of using "Engineering Members" as the team name, you might want to use the team name that github understands like "engineering-managers".. whatever the team name is called in the team URL if that makes sense.