diff --git a/jenkins/base.sh b/jenkins/base.sh
index fc2595662a..7eb4802b8f 100644
--- a/jenkins/base.sh
+++ b/jenkins/base.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
+##
+## requires >= 1.3.0 of the Jenkins git plugin
+##
 
 function github_status {
-    gcli status create edx mitx $GIT_COMMIT \
+
+    if [[ ! ${GIT_URL} =~ git@github.com:([^/]+)/([^\.]+).git ]]; then
+        echo "Cannot parse Github org or repo from URL, using defaults."
+        ORG="edx"
+        REPO="mitx"
+    else
+        ORG=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}
+        REPO=${BASH_REMATCH[2]}
+    fi
+
+    gcli status create $ORG $REPO $GIT_COMMIT \
          --params=$1 \
                   target_url:$BUILD_URL \
                   description:"Build #$BUILD_NUMBER is running" \