Fix private repository listing returning empty results

[jsskeen-utah]

Context

Get-GitHubRepository is used to list repositories filtered by visibility. Organization administrators and individual users rely on this to enumerate private (and internal) repositories for audit, automation, and governance workflows.

Request

When calling Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private (or -Visibility Internal), the command returns an empty list — even when the authenticated user has access to private repositories in their account or organization.

Reproduction steps

# Authenticated as a user with private repos
Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private
# Returns: (no output)

Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Internal
# Returns: (no output)

This was reported by an organization user with access to hundreds of private repositories via the GitHub UI, and independently confirmed with a personal GitHub account that also has private repositories.

What is expected

Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private should return all private repositories the authenticated user has access to. Get-GitHubRepository -Owner <org> -Visibility Private should return all private repositories in the organization the user can see.

Acceptance criteria

• Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private returns all private repositories the authenticated user can access
• Get-GitHubRepository -Owner <org> -Visibility Private returns all private org repositories the user can see
• Pagination works correctly — all pages of results are returned, not just the first page
• No silent data loss when the result set exceeds one page

Environment

PSVersion:             7.5.4
GitHub module version: 0.40.4

---

Technical decisions

Root cause 1 — Pagination bug in Get-GitHubMyRepositories: The private function Get-GitHubMyRepositories (called when no -Owner is specified) has a pagination bug. At the end of the do...while loop, it references $response.pageInfo.hasNextPage and $response.pageInfo.endCursor, but $response is never defined — it should be $_.viewer.repositories.pageInfo.hasNextPage / .endCursor (matching the pattern used correctly in Get-GitHubRepositoryListByOwner). Because $response is $null, $hasNextPage is always falsy, causing the loop to exit after the first page. If the user has more repositories than $PerPage (default 100), the rest are silently dropped.

Root cause 2 — Default affiliation is too restrictive: Get-GitHubMyRepositories defaults the $Affiliation parameter to 'Owner'. This means Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private only returns private repositories the user owns — not repos from organizations (affiliation Organization_member) or collaborations (affiliation Collaborator). For the reported scenario (organization repos), the default excludes all org-owned private repos.

Fix for pagination: Replace $response.pageInfo with $_.viewer.repositories.pageInfo in Get-GitHubMyRepositories.ps1, matching the pattern already used in Get-GitHubRepositoryListByOwner.

Fix for affiliation: Consider changing the default $Affiliation to @('Owner', 'Organization_member', 'Collaborator') so that all accessible repositories are returned by default. Alternatively, keep the current default but document the behavior and let users opt in via -Affiliation. The former is more intuitive and matches user expectations.

Get-GitHubRepositoryListByOwner is correct: The org/user-specific path (Get-GitHubRepository -Owner <org>) uses correct pagination ($_.repositoryOwner.repositories.pageInfo) and passes Visibility correctly via GraphQL. No fix needed there.

Test approach: Integration tests listing private repos for the authenticated user, verifying count matches expectations. Pagination test with a low -PerPage to confirm all pages are fetched.

---

Implementation plan

Core fixes

• Fix pagination in Get-GitHubMyRepositories.ps1 — replace $response.pageInfo.hasNextPage and $response.pageInfo.endCursor with $_.viewer.repositories.pageInfo.hasNextPage and $_.viewer.repositories.pageInfo.endCursor
• Evaluate changing the default $Affiliation in Get-GitHubMyRepositories from 'Owner' to @('Owner', 'Organization_member', 'Collaborator') to return all accessible repos by default

Tests

• Add test verifying Get-GitHubRepository -Visibility Private returns private repos
• Add pagination test using a small -PerPage value to confirm all pages are fetched
• Add test verifying Get-GitHubRepository -Owner <org> -Visibility Private returns org private repos

[MariusStorhaug]

Hi jsskeen-utah,

Think this might be due to the way the app that it uses connects to the account. I will test myself over the next few days, but think you need to install the app on the organization to get it to work, as it would otherwise use the public access to the account to get repos.

Try this link:
https://github.com/apps/powershell-for-github

[jsskeen-utah]

As I mentioned in my edit, this also happens in my personal GitHub account, where I can't see any of my own personal private repositories. So I don't think it has to do with organizations at all.

[MariusStorhaug]

Thank you for the patience on this issue. I think I have been able to reproduce the issue.
If yu just run "Connect-Github" and use the interactive way to log in, it will first log in without installing the PowerShell for GitHub app on your account. This is a requirement that might be different from the CLI, which only requires you to authorize it to be used for your user. To get the same experience you could try to run "Connect-Github -Mode OAuthApp". This should give you private repos once you have authorized it for your account and other orgs you plan to use it with.

[MariusStorhaug]

Restructured issue description into the standard three-section format.

• Rewrote context and request to describe the user-facing behavior (empty results for private/internal visibility)
• Investigated the codebase and identified two root causes:
  1. Pagination bug in Get-GitHubMyRepositories — references undefined $response variable instead of $_.viewer.repositories for page info, causing only the first page to be returned
  2. Default affiliation too restrictive — defaults to Owner only, excluding organization and collaborator repos
• Added technical decisions section with fix approaches for both issues
• Created implementation plan with 5 tasks covering fixes and tests
• Updated title to imperative mood, removed emoji prefix
• Applied Bug and Patch labels, set issue type to Bug