diff --git a/R/git_tools.R b/R/git_tools.R
index 9422cf7..b7ef0af 100644
--- a/R/git_tools.R
+++ b/R/git_tools.R
@@ -184,15 +184,25 @@ install_external_deps <- function(repo_dir, internal_pkg_deps, ...) {
 # function to get the remote name (e.g. origin) which matches
 # the url given in the staged.deps yaml file
 get_remote_name <- function(git_repo, repo_url) {
+
+  # remove the https:// and .git from repo_url
+  repo_url <- gsub("^.+://|.git$", "", repo_url, perl = TRUE)
+
+
   remotes <- git2r::remotes(git_repo)
+
   for (remote in remotes) {
+
     target_url <- git2r::remote_url(git_repo, remote = remote)
-    #sometimes git2r remote_url includes .git in remote_url sometimes does not
-    if (repo_url == target_url || repo_url == paste0(target_url, ".git")) {
+    target_url <- gsub("^(https://|git@ssh.|git@)|\\.git$", "", target_url)
+    target_url <- gsub(":", "/", target_url, fixed = TRUE)
+
+    if (repo_url == target_url) {
       return(remote)
     }
   }
-  stop("Cannot determine remote")
+  # by default return origin
+  return("origin")
 }
 
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-git_tools_mocking.R b/tests/testthat/test-git_tools_mocking.R
index d08dc9f..daa6e53 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-git_tools_mocking.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-git_tools_mocking.R
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ test_that("checkout_repo with mocking works", {
     # delete other local branches
     local_branches <- git2r::branches(repo_dir, flags = "local")
     lapply(local_branches[names(local_branches) != "main"], git2r::branch_delete)
-    git2r::remote_set_url(repo_dir, name = "origin", url = url)
     git2r::repository(local_path)
   })
 
@@ -27,6 +26,8 @@ test_that("checkout_repo with mocking works", {
     invisible(NULL)
   })
 
+  mockery::stub(checkout_repo, 'get_remote_name', function(...) "origin")
+
   with_tmp_cachedir({
     repo_dir <- file.path(tempfile(), "stageddeps.food")
 
@@ -76,3 +77,28 @@ test_that("check_only_remote_branches works", {
     regexp = "remote_name", fixed = TRUE
   )
 })
+
+
+test_that("get_remote_name provides remote name of repo",{
+
+  mockery::stub(get_remote_name, 'git2r::remote_url', function(git_repo, remote){
+    switch(remote,
+       A = "git@ssh.github.com:x/y.git",
+       B = "git@github.com:w/v.git",
+       C = "https://github.com/k/l/m",
+       D = "https://github.com/a/b.git",
+       origin = "https://github.com/xxx/c.git"
+    )
+  })
+
+
+  mockery::stub(get_remote_name, 'git2r::remotes', function(git_repo) c("origin", "A", "B", "C", "D"))
+  expect_equal(get_remote_name(".", "https://github.com/x/y.git"), "A")
+  expect_equal(get_remote_name(".", "https://github.com/w/v.git"), "B")
+  expect_equal(get_remote_name(".", "https://github.com/k/l/m.git"), "C")
+  expect_equal(get_remote_name(".", "https://github.com/a/b.git"), "D")
+  expect_equal(get_remote_name(".", "https://other.git"), "origin")
+
+
+})
+