Renovate fails to open PRs for jobs that do not have open branches with renovate/ prefix

[Teebor-Choka]

How are you running Renovate?

A Mend.io-hosted app

Which platform you running Renovate on?

GitHub.com

Which version of Renovate are you using?

"renovateVersion": "43.219.0"

Please tell us more about your question or problem

Branches, which do not exist in the repository, do not get created and the renovate jobs for them fails, they attempt to be updated instead of being created and fail.

Existing branches do not suffer from this issue.

Logs (if relevant)

Branches, which do not exist in the repository, do not get created, but attempt to be updated and fail. Existing branches do not suffer from this issue.

DEBUG: syncBranchState() (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: getBranchPr(renovate/major-nix-flake-updates) (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: findPr(renovate/major-nix-flake-updates, undefined, open) (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: branchExists=false (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: dependencyDashboardCheck=global-config (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Check for closed PR because recreating closed PRs is disabled. (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: findPr(renovate/major-nix-flake-updates, chore(deps): update nix flake updates to release-26.05 (major), !open) (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: prAlreadyExisted=false (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Open PR Count: 1, Existing Branch Count: 1, Hourly PR Count: 0, Hourly Commit Count: 0 (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: prHourlyLimit of the upgrades present in this branch (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "limits": [
    {
      "depName": "nixpkgs",
      "prHourlyLimit": 2
    }
  ]
}

DEBUG: Calculated lowest prHourlyLimit among the upgrades present in this branch is 2. (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: branchConcurrentLimit of the upgrades present in this branch (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "limits": [
    {
      "depName": "nixpkgs",
      "branchConcurrentLimit": null
    }
  ]
}

DEBUG: Calculated lowest branchConcurrentLimit among the upgrades present in this branch is 10. (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: commitHourlyLimit of the upgrades present in this branch (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "limits": [
    {
      "depName": "nixpkgs",
      "commitHourlyLimit": 0
    }
  ]
}

DEBUG: commitHourlyLimit of this branch is unlimited, because at least one of the upgrade has it's commitHourlyLimit set to "No limit" ie. 0 or null (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Checking schedule(schedule=* 0-3 * * 1, tz=null, now=2026-06-18T11:20:51.379Z) (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Checking 1 schedule(s) (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Human-readable summary for cron:: Every minute, between 12:00 AM and 03:59 AM, only on Monday (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Package not scheduled (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Manual create/rebase requested via checkedBranches (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Using reuseExistingBranch: false (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Setting current branch to main (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: syncGit(): Initializing git repository into /tmp/renovate/repos/github/hoprnet/hopr-api (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Performing blobless clone (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: git clone completed (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "durationMs": 280
}

DEBUG: latest repository commit (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "latestCommit": {
    "hash": "1ce7caab333f1ee64a0f18d977ec6a978a966080",
    "date": "2026-06-18T11:02:52Z",
    "message": "chore(deps): update github-actions (#87)",
    "refs": "HEAD -> main, origin/main, origin/HEAD",
    "body": "This PR contains the following updates:\n\n| Package | Type | Update | Change |\n|---|---|---|---|\n|\n[hoprnet/hopr-workflows](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows)\n| action | minor | `0.9.4` → `0.10.1` |\n|\n[hoprnet/hopr-workflows](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows)\n([changelog](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/19d69bd81be66220932b18f1a7a655b422180b4e..d0cffaf9e9209c8eca00e8c74e82ac3f5f3cf7bb))\n| action | digest | `19d69bd` → `d0cffaf` |\n|\n[zulip/github-actions-zulip](https://redirect.github.com/zulip/github-actions-zulip)\n| action | patch | `v2.0.1` → `v2.0.2` |\n\n---\n\n### Release Notes\n\n<details>\n<summary>hoprnet/hopr-workflows (hoprnet/hopr-workflows)</summary>\n\n###\n[`v0.10.1`](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.10.0...0.10.1)\n\n[Compare\nSource](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.10.0...0.10.1)\n\n###\n[`v0.10.0`](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.6...0.10.0)\n\n[Compare\nSource](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.6...0.10.0)\n\n###\n[`v0.9.6`](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.5...0.9.6)\n\n[Compare\nSource](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.5...0.9.6)\n\n###\n[`v0.9.5`](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.4...0.9.5)\n\n[Compare\nSource](https://redirect.github.com/hoprnet/hopr-workflows/compare/0.9.4...0.9.5)\n\n</details>\n\n<details>\n<summary>zulip/github-actions-zulip\n(zulip/github-actions-zulip)</summary>\n\n###\n[`v2.0.2`](https://redirect.github.com/zulip/github-actions-zulip/releases/tag/v2.0.2)\n\n[Compare\nSource](https://redirect.github.com/zulip/github-actions-zulip/compare/v2.0.1...v2.0.2)\n\n#### What's Changed\n\n- Upgrade dependencies by\n[@&#8203;andersk](https://redirect.github.com/andersk) in\n[#&#8203;153](https://redirect.github.com/zulip/github-actions-zulip/pull/153)\n\n**Full Changelog**:\n<https://github.com/zulip/github-actions-zulip/compare/v2.0.1...v2.0.2>\n\n</details>\n\n---\n\n### Configuration\n\n📅 **Schedule**: (UTC)\n\n- Branch creation\n  - Between 12:00 AM and 03:59 AM, only on Monday (`* 0-3 * * 1`)\n- Automerge\n  - At any time (no schedule defined)\n\n🚦 **Automerge**: Disabled by config. Please merge this manually once you\nare satisfied.\n\n♻ **Rebasing**: Whenever PR becomes conflicted, or you tick the\nrebase/retry checkbox.\n\n👻 **Immortal**: This PR will be recreated if closed unmerged. Get\n[config\nhelp](https://redirect.github.com/renovatebot/renovate/discussions) if\nthat's undesired.\n\n---\n\n- [ ] <!-- rebase-check -->If you want to rebase/retry this PR, check\nthis box\n\n---\n\nThis PR was generated by [Mend Renovate](https://mend.io/renovate/).\nView the [repository job\nlog](https://developer.mend.io/github/hoprnet/hopr-api).\n\n<!--renovate-debug:eyJjcmVhdGVkSW5WZXIiOiI0My4yMTkuMCIsInVwZGF0ZWRJblZlciI6IjQzLjIxOS4wIiwidGFyZ2V0QnJhbmNoIjoibWFpbiIsImxhYmVscyI6W119-->\n\nCo-authored-by: renovate[bot] <29139614+renovate[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>",
    "author_name": "renovate[bot]",
    "author_email": "29139614+renovate[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
  }
}

DEBUG: Current branch SHA: 1ce7caab333f1ee64a0f18d977ec6a978a966080 (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: latest commit (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "branchName": "main",
  "latestCommitDate": "2026-06-18T11:02:52.000Z",
  "sha": "1ce7caab333f1ee64a0f18d977ec6a978a966080"
}

DEBUG: manager.getUpdatedPackageFiles() reuseExistingBranch=false (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
DEBUG: Starting search at index 245 (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "packageFile": "flake.nix",
  "depName": "nixpkgs"
}

DEBUG: Found match at index 245 (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "packageFile": "flake.nix",
  "depName": "nixpkgs"
}

DEBUG: Value is not updated (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")
{
  "depName": "nixpkgs",
  "manager": "nix",
  "packageFile": "flake.nix",
  "expectedValue": "release-26.05",
  "foundValue": "release-25.11"
}

WARN: Error updating branch: update failure (branch="renovate/major-nix-flake-updates")


...

DEBUG: repository problems
{
  "repoProblems": [
    "⚠️ WARN: Error updating branch: update failure"
  ]
}