A git refusal is read once, where git's words already are

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -55,6 +55,30 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   U+FFFD: a name to refuse rather than a variable to ignore, refused by name
   with no devpod call made.
 
+- **On git 2.20 and older, a launch that asks for a new branch no longer fails
+  outright.** Up to v2.20.0 git wrote `Couldn't find remote ref %s` through a
+  bare `die()` (`remote.c:1785`) — capital C, and never routed through gettext,
+  so the `LC_ALL=C` the fetch is pinned under could not normalise it; it is
+  lowercase and translatable from v2.21.0. The reader that recognises "the
+  remote has not got this ref" is the one that falls back to the default branch,
+  and it matched only the later wording. On a host still running that git the
+  ref-missing *answer* therefore read as a failure, the fallback never ran, and
+  an ordinary "start a new branch" launch died on a message about a ref nobody
+  had asked to exist yet. The refusal is classified from the verb that produced
+  it now, and case does not decide it.
+
+- **A repository that is not there on Codeberg or Forgejo now gets the
+  wrong-owner hint.** Those hosts answer a 404 with `remote: Not found.`, and
+  none of the three phrases the renderer sniffed for appear anywhere in that
+  output — all three were GitHub's and GitLab's wordings. The only other line is
+  git's own `fatal: repository '<url>' not found`, which does not contain the
+  substring `repository not found` the renderer was looking for, so a mistyped
+  owner on those hosts got the bare clone failure and no suggestion of what to
+  try. The reader matches git's line as a whole line ending in `' not found`
+  now, which is the host's wording out of the decision entirely, and still keeps
+  out `branch '%s' not found`, `tag '%s' not found` and `repository '%s' does
+  not exist`.
+
 ## [0.13.0] - 2026-08-24
 
 ### Changed

rust/devlaunch-core/public-api.rest.txt

@@ -175,6 +175,23 @@ pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::gh::GhUnavailable::fmt(&self, &mut core::fmt::Fo
 impl core::marker::Copy for devlaunch_core::clients::gh::GhUnavailable
 impl core::marker::StructuralPartialEq for devlaunch_core::clients::gh::GhUnavailable
 pub mod devlaunch_core::clients::git
+pub enum devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::BranchAlreadyExists
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::Exited(devlaunch_runner::Exit)
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::GitNotInstalled
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::NotStarted(devlaunch_runner::OsFailure)
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::RefMissingOnRemote
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::RepositoryNotFound
+pub devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::TimedOut
+impl core::clone::Clone for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::clone(&self) -> devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+impl core::cmp::Eq for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+impl core::cmp::PartialEq for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::eq(&self, &devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure) -> bool
+impl core::fmt::Debug for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure::fmt(&self, &mut core::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> core::fmt::Result
+impl core::marker::Copy for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
+impl core::marker::StructuralPartialEq for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
 pub struct devlaunch_core::clients::git::Git<'r>
 impl<'r> devlaunch_core::clients::git::Git<'r>
 pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::Git<'r>::new(&'r dyn devlaunch_runner::Runner) -> Self
@@ -183,6 +200,7 @@ pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::Git<'r>::clone(&self) -> devlaunch_core::cl
 impl<'r> core::marker::Copy for devlaunch_core::clients::git::Git<'r>
 pub struct devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused
 impl devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused
+pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused::how(&self) -> devlaunch_core::clients::git::Failure
 pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused::reason(&self) -> &str
 impl core::clone::Clone for devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused
 pub fn devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused::clone(&self) -> devlaunch_core::clients::git::GitRefused