^{Originally posted by w-e-w December 20, 2025}

for any new install of stable-diffusion-webui you will incounter an issue during initial installation

Cloning Stable Diffusion into B:\Downloads\sd.webui\webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai...
Cloning into 'B:\Downloads\sd.webui\webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai'...
Username for 'https://github.com':

or

Cloning Stable Diffusion into B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai...
Cloning into 'B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai'...
remote: Repository not found.
fatal: repository 'https://github.com/Stability-AI/stablediffusion.git/' not found
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 53, in <module>
    main()
  File "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 44, in main
    prepare_environment()
  File "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py", line 443, in prepare_environment
    git_clone(stable_diffusion_repo, repo_dir('stable-diffusion-stability-ai'), "Stable Diffusion", stable_diffusion_commit_hash)
  File "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py", line 189, in git_clone
    run(f'"{git}" clone --config core.filemode=false "{url}" "{dir}"', f"Cloning {name} into {dir}...", f"Couldn't clone {name}", live=True)
  File "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py", line 113, in run
    raise RuntimeError("\n".join(error_bits))
RuntimeError: Couldn't clone Stable Diffusion.
Command: "git" clone --config core.filemode=false "https://github.com/Stability-AI/stablediffusion.git" "B:\GitHub\stable-diffusion-webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai"
Error code: 128

the cause of the issue is because during the initial installation webui will clone (download) additional code form the repository https://github.com/Stability-AI/stablediffusion, since some days ago this repository is no longer available due to either being removed or private, as webui is unable to download required code it fails to install

this clone is only done if the <sd-webui-dir>/repositories/stable-diffusion-stability-ai is not found, existing installations that has already cloned the repo won't be affected

Fix: we have updated the dev branch

on the dev branch we now update webui so that it clone the requred code from a frok https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git
see PR

• update stable_diffusion_repo url #17207

so the simplest thing this thing you can do to fix this issue is to switch to dev branch
this can be done by running the fellowing command in your web-ui directory

git switch dev

it's possible that you may need to run git pull after you switch the branch to ensure that the code is updated

git pull

Alternatively fix

as the fixed is only applied to the dev branch, if for some reason you're using an alternative version of webui or can't/don't want to switch the dev branch you could configure webui to clone from a different URL by setting the environment variable
STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO to https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git

for Windows (without custom launcher)

add the following line to webui-user.bat

set STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO=https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git

the file should end up looking like this

@echo off

set PYTHON=
set GIT=
set VENV_DIR=
set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=
set STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO=https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git

call webui.bat

for Linux and Mac

similarly add the following line to webui-user.sh

export STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO="https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git"

For StabilityMatrix

Update: This has been fixed in StabilityMatrix >= v2.15.6

you can add environment variable in the setting
Setting > Environment Variable (Edit Button) > clicke + button then input the follow

other launchs may have similar Environment Variable settings, if so the same procedure can be applied

Windows Generic method

if you are on Windows and using a launcher does not have advanced settings that provide a way for you to add Environment Variable
it is still possible to configure Environment Variables from the operating system level
Steps

1. open Windwos Settings > System
2. goto About section (scroll down, normally it should be the last item)
3. on About click on Advanced system settings to open System Properties
4. on System Properties click on Environment Variables to open Environment Variables
5. on Environment Variables click New
6. input the follow to Variable name and Variable value

7. click OK to confirm adding the new environment variables, (you should a new entry is added)
8. click OK to again confirm again save your changes
9. click OK to again confirm that you confirm for the last time to exit

If you follow the steps correctly you should be able to install web ui in any launcher as normal

Last resort fix

if you are unable to accomplish any of the above methods the last resort woud be to edit the code directly

this method though straightforward but it can potentially cause issues with git in the future so it is not recommended

open stable-diffusion-webui/‎modules/launch_utils.py‎ find the following line and modify it

find

-    stable_diffusion_repo = os.environ.get('STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO', "https://github.com/Stability-AI/stablediffusion.git")
+    stable_diffusion_repo = os.environ.get('STABLE_DIFFUSION_REPO', "https://github.com/w-e-w/stablediffusion.git")

Additional Troubleshooting

after applying the above fix if you're still getting errors
try deleting the folder stable-diffusion-webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai then try again