"Permission not_found: owner not found": I cannot publish private package to GitHub Packages under new organization #161277

alfonsomartinde · 2025-06-02T02:27:11Z

alfonsomartinde
Jun 2, 2025

Select Topic Area

Question

Body

Hi!,
I am unable to publish a private npm package to GitHub Packages under a newly created organization, and I consistently receive the following error when running npm publish --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com/:

403 Forbidden - PUT https://npm.pkg.github.com/@emanager.com%2ffrontend - Permission not_found: owner not found

I checked authentication with whoami:

npm whoami --registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com

which returns my username (alfonsomartinde), confirming authentication.

Details of my setup and what I have tried:

The organization is called emanager.com, created a few hours ago.
The repository frontend exists under the organization (emanager.com/frontend) and is private.
My user (alfonsomartinde) is listed as Owner and Admin in the organization.
I have generated a Classic Personal Access Token with all possible permissions (repo, write:packages, read:packages), and also tried with a Fine-grained token with explicit access to the repository and the same permissions.

My .npmrc is configured as follows:

@emanager.com:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com/
//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I also tried it creating .npmrc from a GitHub Action

      - name: Create .npmrc file
        run: |
          echo "@emanager.com:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com" > .npmrc
          echo "//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" >> .npmrc
          cat .npmrc

where GITHUB_TOKEN has the following permissions: (from the log)

GITHUB_TOKEN Permissions
  Actions: write
  Attestations: write
  Checks: write
  Contents: write
  Deployments: write
  Discussions: write
  Issues: write
  Metadata: read
  Models: read
  Packages: write
  Pages: write
  PullRequests: write
  RepositoryProjects: write
  SecurityEvents: write
  Statuses: write

My package.json contains:

  "name": "@emanager.com/frontend",
  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github.com/"
  }

I have tried publishing both my main package and a minimal test package, both with the same result.
I have waited several hours in case of propagation delays.
The organization settings allow members to create private packages.
There are no SSO or security restrictions on my user or the organization.
I have tried from different machines and after clearing the npm cache.
The error persists with both Classic and Fine-grained tokens, and with both real and test packages.

Could you please help me resolve this or let me know if there is a delay or additional step required for new organizations to use GitHub Packages?

Thank you very much for your help.
Best regards,
Alfonso

Answered by LqhResearch

Jun 2, 2025

Hi @alfonsomartinde,

📌 Root Cause

From the error message:

403 Forbidden - PUT https://npm.pkg.github.com/@emanager.com%2ffrontend - Permission not_found: owner not found

It seems the issue lies in the scoped package name:

"name": "@emanager.com/frontend"

GitHub does not support dots in organization/package scope names for GitHub Packages. In your case, the scope @emanager.com is being interpreted incorrectly by the npm registry (the %2f encoding suggests confusion between the org and package name).

✅ Solution

You need to rename the package scope to match the GitHub org exactly — without dots (.).

So, you have two options:

Option 1: Rename your GitHub organization

Rename the organization…

View full answer

LqhResearch · 2025-06-02T04:06:05Z

LqhResearch
Jun 2, 2025

8000

Hi @alfonsomartinde,

📌 Root Cause

From the error message:

403 Forbidden - PUT https://npm.pkg.github.com/@emanager.com%2ffrontend - Permission not_found: owner not found

It seems the issue lies in the scoped package name:

"name": "@emanager.com/frontend"

GitHub does not support dots in organization/package scope names for GitHub Packages. In your case, the scope @emanager.com is being interpreted incorrectly by the npm registry (the %2f encoding suggests confusion between the org and package name).

✅ Solution

You need to rename the package scope to match the GitHub org exactly — without dots (.).

So, you have two options:

Option 1: Rename your GitHub organization

Rename the organization from emanager.com → emanager-com or emanager, then update your package.json:

"name": "@emanager/frontend"

And in your .npmrc:

@emanager:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com/
//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Option 2: Publish under a personal scope (for testing)

If you can't rename the org right now, try publishing under your personal scope first to confirm everything else is working:

"name": "@alfonsomartinde/frontend"

With .npmrc:

@alfonsomartinde:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com/
//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I hope this resolves your issue. Let me know if you need help renaming the org or migrating package names — happy to help!

Best regards,
LqhResearch

0 replies

alfonsomartinde · 2025-06-02T11:55:02Z

alfonsomartinde
Jun 2, 2025
Author

Thank you so much!
That was it

0 replies

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

GitHub Community

"Permission not_found: owner not found": I cannot publish private package to GitHub Packages under new organization #161277

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Replies: 2 comments

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Select a reply

Uh oh!

GitHub Community

"Permission not_found: owner not found": I cannot publish private package to GitHub Packages under new organization #161277

Uh oh!

alfonsomartinde Jun 2, 2025

Select Topic Area

Body

📌 Root Cause

✅ Solution

Option 1: Rename your GitHub organization

Replies: 2 comments

Uh oh!

LqhResearch Jun 2, 2025

📌 Root Cause

✅ Solution

Option 1: Rename your GitHub organization

Option 2: Publish under a personal scope (for testing)

Uh oh!

alfonsomartinde Jun 2, 2025 Author

alfonsomartinde
Jun 2, 2025

LqhResearch
Jun 2, 2025

alfonsomartinde
Jun 2, 2025
Author