Lack of validation when creating local VCS via API

[nijel]

Describe the issue

Using repo=local: vcs=local and providing no zipfile/docfile via API results in HTTP error 400: Bad Request {'repo': ["Could not update repository: fatal: 'origin/main' is not a commit and a branch 'main' cannot be created from it\n (128)"]}

I already tried

• I've read and searched the documentation.
• I've searched for similar issues in this repository.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Trigger API request with repo=local:, vcs=local
2. See the request fails

Expected behavior

It should behave similarly as in the UI - for some formats it is possible to start with a blank files, for some initial data is required.

Screenshots

No response

Exception traceback

No response

How do you run Weblate?

weblate.org service

Weblate versions

4.11

Weblate deploy checks

No response

Additional context

No response

[nijel]

Similarly, using just repo=local: fails with:

wlc.WeblateException: HTTP error 400: Bad Request {'repo': ['Could not fetch the repository: ssh: Could not resolve hostname local: Name or service not known\nfatal: Could not read from remote repository.\n\nPlease make sure you have the correct access rights\nand the repository exists.\n (128)']}

[sentry-io]

Sentry issue: WEBLATE-611

[github-actions]

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