Could not get the latest source version for repository *** hosted on Azure Repos using ref ***

When creating Azure pipeline, it is common to checkout other repositories on Azure DevOps. In some cases, you may encounter the following error:

Could not get the latest source version for repository *** hosted on Azure Repos using ref ***

Reproduce the error

You can reproduce the error using the following steps:

• Create a branch with name like test-branch.
• In Azure DevOps pipeline, add the following section:
  

  resources:
    repositories:
      - repository: build_template_repo
        type: git
        name: kontext/build_template
        ref: test_branch
  jobs:
  - template: azure-pipelines-template.yml@build_template_repo

• Run the build pipeline. 

The error will show up because there is no branch named test_branch existing in my project.

Resolution

To fix this issue, you will need to rename the branch name to remove hyphen, for example, replacing it with test_branch. However I've tested and this is not causing any issues. For example, the following pipeline works fine:

# Starter pipeline
# Start with a minimal pipeline that you can customize to build and deploy your code.
# Add steps that build, run tests, deploy, and more:
# https://aka.ms/yaml

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

resources:
  repositories:
    - repository: my-repo
      type: git
      name: kontext/test
      ref: feature/test-branch

steps:
- script: echo Hello, world!
  displayName: 'Run a one-line script'

- script: |
    echo Add other tasks to build, test, and deploy your project.
    echo See https://aka.ms/yaml
  displayName: 'Run a multi-line script'

- checkout: my-repo

Thus the normal cause of this error is mainly because the repository name or reference names don't exist in your Azure project. Make sure you have referenced the correct repo, branch, tag and commit names in your pipeline.

References

Pipeline template - could not get latest source version - Visual Studio Feedback

Check out multiple repositories in your pipeline - Azure Pipelines | Microsoft Docs