Diagnose a private repository missing from a reading app

Verify the account and repository

Open the repository in GitHub while signed in as the same account used for the reading workflow. Confirm the owner and repository name rather than relying on a similarly named fork. If direct access fails, the problem exists before the reading app is involved.

Ask the repository owner to confirm your intended access through the organization’s normal process. Avoid requesting administrator privileges merely to read documentation; the required access should match the actual job.

Check the GitHub App installation

gitHtml uses a GitHub App. User authorization and installation are separate: installation grants access to selected account or organization resources, while authorization lets the app act on a user’s behalf. Check that the app is installed for the repository’s actual owner and that the target repository is included in its selection.

If organization policy requires an owner’s approval, request the appropriate installation or repository-access change through that process. Do not confuse this with OAuth App approval rules. Avoid pasting credentials, authorization codes, or tokens into support messages; use redacted permission details and error descriptions instead.

1. Confirm direct access with the intended GitHub account.
2. Check the GitHub App installation owner and selected repositories.
3. Ask an organization owner to resolve required installation approval.

Separate access from content discovery

Once access is confirmed, inspect whether the repository actually contains .html files in the expected revision. gitHtml indexes .html documents; a repository containing only Markdown sources may be accessible while still offering no matching HTML pages.

Also distinguish a missing repository from a missing file. The first suggests account or permission scope; the second can involve path changes, absent generated output, or a misunderstanding of which content is recorded in the repository.

Send a useful support report

Provide the app version, approximate time, whether direct GitHub access succeeds, whether organization approval is required, and a redacted description of the symptom. Include the expected file extension and whether the issue affects one repository or several.

Keep the repository private while investigating. Visibility changes have consequences beyond this reading task, and a successful workaround that exposes confidential material is not a fix. Ask the owner or support team for the narrow next diagnostic step.

Read next

• Map an unfamiliar documentation repository before reading
• Find actual HTML documents in a GitHub repository
• Share a GitHub document at an exact revision
• Choose branch, tag, or commit references for documentation

All github documentation workflows guides →