Detect Repository Host Skill

Detect the repository hosting service from git remote configuration and extract structured metadata for platform-aware command routing.

Overview

Many commands need to determine whether the current repository is hosted on GitHub or GitLab to route MCP calls correctly. This skill centralizes that detection logic so commands can invoke it via the Skill tool instead of duplicating git remote -v parsing.

When to Use

• Before calling GitHub or GitLab MCP tools that require owner/repo or project_path
• When a command needs to branch logic based on hosting platform
• Any workflow requiring platform-aware routing

Workflow

Step 1: Read Git Remotes

git remote -v

Parse the output to find the origin remote (or the first available remote if origin is not set).

Step 2: Parse Remote URL

Support both SSH and HTTPS URL formats:

SSH formats:

git@github.com:owner/repo.git
git@gitlab.com:group/subgroup/project.git
git@gitlab.self-hosted.example.com:group/project.git

HTTPS formats:

https://github.com/owner/repo.git
https://gitlab.com/group/subgroup/project.git
https://gitlab.self-hosted.example.com/group/project.git

Parsing rules:

1. Strip trailing .git suffix if present
2. Extract hostname from URL
3. Extract path segments after hostname

Step 3: Detect Platform

Hostname Pattern	Platform
github.com	GitHub
gitlab.com	GitLab
Other hostnames	Assume GitLab (self-hosted instances are common)

Step 4: Extract Metadata

For GitHub (github.com):

• owner: First path segment (user or organization)
• repo: Second path segment (repository name)
• project_path: owner/repo

For GitLab (gitlab.com or self-hosted):

• project_path: Full path after hostname (supports nested groups, e.g., group/subgroup/project)
• owner: First path segment (top-level group)
• repo: Last path segment (project name)

Output

Return the following structured information:

Field	Description	Example (GitHub)	Example (GitLab)
platform	Hosting service	github	gitlab
owner	User/org/group	sgaunet	myorg
repo	Repository name	claude-plugins	myproject
project_path	Full path	sgaunet/claude-plugins	myorg/team/myproject
remote_url	Raw remote URL	git@github.com:sgaunet/claude-plugins.git	https://gitlab.com/myorg/team/myproject.git

Error Handling

Condition	Action
Not a git repository	Abort: "Not a git repository. Initialize with git init first."
No remotes configured	Abort: "No git remotes found. Add a remote with git remote add origin <url>."
No origin remote	Fall back to first available remote, warn user
URL format unrecognized	Abort: "Could not parse remote URL: <url>. Expected GitHub or GitLab format."

Examples

GitHub SSH

$ git remote -v
origin  git@github.com:sgaunet/claude-plugins.git (fetch)

→ platform: github
→ owner: sgaunet
→ repo: claude-plugins
→ project_path: sgaunet/claude-plugins
→ remote_url: git@github.com:sgaunet/claude-plugins.git

GitLab HTTPS with Subgroups

$ git remote -v
origin  https://gitlab.com/myorg/backend/api-service.git (fetch)

→ platform: gitlab
→ owner: myorg
→ repo: api-service
→ project_path: myorg/backend/api-service
→ remote_url: https://gitlab.com/myorg/backend/api-service.git

Self-Hosted GitLab

$ git remote -v
origin  git@gitlab.company.internal:devteam/infra.git (fetch)

→ platform: gitlab
→ owner: devteam
→ repo: infra
→ project_path: devteam/infra
→ remote_url: git@gitlab.company.internal:devteam/infra.git