diff --git a/augur/api/view/api.py b/augur/api/view/api.py
index 084ee4bce..e0fd36d6f 100644
--- a/augur/api/view/api.py
+++ b/augur/api/view/api.py
@@ -40,14 +40,14 @@ def av_add_user_repo():
 
         # matches https://github.com/{org}/ or htts://github.com/{org}
         if Repo.parse_github_org_url(url):
-            added = current_user.add_org(group, url)
+            added = current_user.add_org(group, url)[0]
             if added:
                 added_orgs += 1
 
         # matches https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/ or htts://github.com/{org}/{repo}
         elif Repo.parse_github_repo_url(url)[0]:
             print("Adding repo")
-            added = current_user.add_repo(group, url)
+            added = current_user.add_repo(group, url)[0]
             if added:
                 print("Repo added")
                 added_repos += 1
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def av_add_user_repo():
         elif (match := re.match(r'^\/?([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)\/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)\/?$', url)):
             org, repo = match.groups()
             repo_url = f"https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/"
-            added = current_user.add_repo(group, repo_url)
+            added = current_user.add_repo(group, repo_url)[0]
             if added:
                 added_repos += 1
 
@@ -64,11 +64,10 @@ def av_add_user_repo():
         elif (match := re.match(r'^\/?([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)\/?$', url)):
             org = match.group(1)
             org_url = f"https://github.com/{org}/"
-            added = current_user.add_org(group, org_url)
+            added = current_user.add_org(group, org_url)[0]
             if added:
                 added_orgs += 1
 
-
     if not added_orgs and not added_repos:
         flash(f"Unable to add any repos or orgs")
     else:
diff --git a/augur/application/db/models/augur_operations.py b/augur/application/db/models/augur_operations.py
index e65363ffb..8e60a4aaf 100644
--- a/augur/application/db/models/augur_operations.py
+++ b/augur/application/db/models/augur_operations.py
@@ -429,9 +429,14 @@ def remove_group(self, group_name):
     def add_repo(self, group_name, repo_url):
         
         from augur.tasks.github.util.github_task_session import GithubTaskSession
+        from augur.tasks.github.util.github_api_key_handler import NoValidKeysError
 
         with GithubTaskSession(logger) as session:
-            result = UserRepo.add(session, repo_url, self.user_id, group_name)
+        try:
+            with GithubTaskSession(logger) as session:
+                result = UserRepo.add(session, repo_url, self.user_id, group_name)
+        except NoValidKeysError:
+            return False, {"status": "No valid keys"}
 
         return result
 
@@ -445,9 +450,13 @@ def remove_repo(self, group_name, repo_id):
     def add_org(self, group_name, org_url):
 
         from augur.tasks.github.util.github_task_session import GithubTaskSession
+        from augur.tasks.github.util.github_api_key_handler import NoValidKeysError
 
-        with GithubTaskSession(logger) as session:
-            result = UserRepo.add_org_repos(session, org_url, self.user_id, group_name)
+        try:
+            with GithubTaskSession(logger) as session:
+                result = UserRepo.add_org_repos(session, org_url, self.user_id, group_name)
+        except NoValidKeysError:
+            return False, {"status": "No valid keys"}
 
         return result
 
diff --git a/augur/tasks/github/util/github_api_key_handler.py b/augur/tasks/github/util/github_api_key_handler.py
index 86055d7a7..2406ecef0 100644
--- a/augur/tasks/github/util/github_api_key_handler.py
+++ b/augur/tasks/github/util/github_api_key_handler.py
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@
 from augur.application.db.session import DatabaseSession
 from augur.application.config import AugurConfig
 
+
+class NoValidKeysError(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
 class GithubApiKeyHandler():
     """Handles Github API key retrieval from the database and redis
 
@@ -122,6 +127,9 @@ def get_api_keys(self) -> List[str]:
         # add all the keys to redis
         self.redis_key_list.extend(valid_keys)
 
+        if not valid_keys:
+            raise NoValidKeysError("No valid github api keys found in the config or worker oauth table")
+
         return valid_keys
 
     def is_bad_api_key(self, client: httpx.Client, oauth_key: str) -> bool: