diff --git a/app/controllers/api/v0/github_repos_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/v0/github_repos_controller.rb
index 6afc1ab67..d9e9a5e27 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api/v0/github_repos_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api/v0/github_repos_controller.rb
@@ -16,7 +16,13 @@ module Api
 
       def update_or_create
         @client = create_octokit_client
-        @repo = GithubRepo.find_or_create(fetched_repo_params)
+        fetched_repo = fetch_repo
+        unless fetched_repo
+          render json: "error: Could not find Github repo", status: :not_found
+          return
+        end
+
+        @repo = GithubRepo.find_or_create(fetched_repo_params(fetched_repo))
         current_user.touch(:github_repos_updated_at)
         if @repo.valid?
           render json: { featured: @repo.featured }
@@ -32,11 +38,7 @@ module Api
         Octokit::Client.new(access_token: current_user_token)
       end
 
-      def fetched_repo_params
-        params[:github_repo] = JSON.parse(params[:github_repo])
-        fetched_repo = @client.repositories.detect do |repo|
-          repo.id == permitted_attributes(GithubRepo)[:github_id_code].to_i
-        end
+      def fetched_repo_params(fetched_repo)
         {
           github_id_code: fetched_repo.id,
           user_id: current_user.id,
@@ -52,6 +54,13 @@ module Api
           info_hash: fetched_repo.to_hash
         }
       end
+
+      def fetch_repo
+        params[:github_repo] = JSON.parse(params[:github_repo])
+        @client.repositories.detect do |repo|
+          repo.id == permitted_attributes(GithubRepo)[:github_id_code].to_i
+        end
+      end
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/requests/api/v0/github_repos_spec.rb b/spec/requests/api/v0/github_repos_spec.rb
index f3d73f2f6..5783efb77 100644
--- a/spec/requests/api/v0/github_repos_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/api/v0/github_repos_spec.rb
@@ -35,5 +35,13 @@ RSpec.describe "Api::V0::GithubRepos", type: :request do
       expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
       expect(response.content_type).to eq("application/json")
     end
+
+    it "returns 404 and json response on error" do
+      allow(Octokit::Client).to receive(:new).and_return(my_ocktokit_client)
+      allow(my_ocktokit_client).to receive(:repositories).and_return([])
+      post "/api/github_repos/update_or_create", params: { github_repo: "{}" }
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:not_found)
+      expect(response.body).to include("Could not find Github repo")
+    end
   end
 end