Has no upstream branch errors in git can be such a damn productivity killer. You gotta stop your flow and swap over the branch, there is a config so that you don't have to do this.

fatal has no upstream branch

If you have not yet configured git to always push to the current branch, you will get a has no upstream branch error if you don't explicitly set it.

Let's show an example


git checkout -b feat/ingest-inventory-data
git add conf/base/catalog.yml
git commit -m "feat: ingest inventory data from abc-db"
git push

You will be presented with the following error.


fatal: The current branch feat/ingest-inventory-data has no upstream branch.
To push the current branch and set the remote as upstream, use

    git push --set-upstream origin feat/ingest-inventory-data

Option 1: follow the instructions

To resolve this fatal error your first option is simply to follow the instructions given. Just copy and paste it in.


git push --set-upstream origin feat/ingest-inventory-data

Option 2: push to current bransh wihtout setting upstream

Honestly I am pretty aware of the branch I am on, and Very few times have I ever accidently pushed to the wrong branch. The one that you might have a bigger chance with a more detrimental effect is main, which I will argue you should have blocked to require a passing ci, and potentially reviewers to merge in. Therefore you can't even push to main anyways.

To just push to the branch you are currently on each and every time and never see this error again, you can run this to configure git to always push to your current branch.


git config --global push.default current