WTCC 2: Template-copy failure suggests a remedy that cannot resolve it

[Talonness]

Which part is affected?

What happened?

Type: Bug Priority: P3 — Low Part affected: classroom50.org

When assignment acceptance fails because the student lacks organization repository creation permission, the error reads:

Couldn't copy the private template [org]/[template] (HTTP 403). GitHub said: "You need admin access to the organization before adding a repository to it." Ask your teacher to re-run assignment setup, then accept again.

Re-running assignment setup does not resolve the condition. The blocker is the student's permission level in the organization, not the assignment configuration. A student following the instruction, and an instructor acting on it, will both fail with no indication why.

What did you expect to happen?

The message should identify the actual cause — that the student lacks permission to create repositories in the organization — and direct the instructor to the organization's member privileges settings rather than to assignment setup.

Steps to reproduce

Steps to reproduce

1. In a GitHub organization, disable member repository creation (Settings -> Member privileges -> Repository creation, clear both Public and Private).
2. As a rostered student, accept an individual assignment referencing a private same-org template.
3. Observe the error text at the template-copy step.
4. Re-run assignment setup as the instructor and accept again; observe the same failure.

Version and environment

Item	Value
Operating system	Winddows 11
Browser and version	[Chrome]
GitHub CLI (gh) version	[]
Interface used	Classroom 50 and GitHub web interfaces only
Organization type	GitHub Team
Assignment type	Individual, private same-org template repository

All behavior reported was reproduced through the Classroom 50 and GitHub web interfaces. The gh CLI was not involved.

Test accounts: one instructor account (organization owner) and one separate student account with no elevated permissions.

Deployment context: 78 students across three GitHub organizations (26 each), one classroom per organization.

Relevant logs or output

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and this is not a duplicate.
• I removed any tokens, secrets, or private student data from the logs above.

[rongxin-liu]

@Talonness Thanks for opening the issue. We updated the error message and added a warning for teachers whose organizations do not allow private repository creation.

Somewhat related to #412, allowing private repository creation also lets students create arbitrary, untracked repositories. This is a known limitation of Classroom 50 because it does not run a server that can enforce which repositories are allowed in the organization.