Nanfeng

Notes on software development, code, and curious ideas

Fixing Git’s “remote origin already exists” Error

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Inspect, replace, or update an existing Git origin remote before pushing to your own repository.

After cloning someone else’s repository and adapting the code, you may see this error when trying to add your own remote:

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error: remote origin already exists.

First inspect the current remotes:

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git remote -v

If you want to keep the existing origin name and only change its URL, the simplest option is:

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git remote set-url origin https://gitee.com/your-account/your-repository.git

Alternatively, remove and recreate it:

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git remote remove origin
git remote add origin https://gitee.com/your-account/your-repository.git

Then push the current branch:

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git push -u origin HEAD

Using HEAD avoids assuming that the branch is named master; modern repositories often use main or another default branch.

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