Understanding and Troubleshooting GitHub Actions Permission Issues for Automated File Updates

In modern development workflows, automation tools like GitHub Actions are invaluable for streamlining updates and maintaining synchronization between different data sources and websites. However, even experienced users occasionally encounter permission-related obstacles that can impede proper operation.

A Common Challenge: Permission Denied During Automated Commits

Recent attempts to develop a data scraper using GitHub Actions have highlighted a frequent stumbling block—despite configuring access tokens, the automated process fails during the commit stage, reporting insufficient permissions. This can be particularly perplexing for newcomers to web development and automation.

Scenario Overview: Data Synchronization via GitHub Actions

The goal is to create a scraper that extracts information from an external calendar and stores this data in a JSON file within the repository. Subsequently, an HTML site displays this information dynamically. To automate this process, GitHub Actions has been utilized, actively scraping the website and updating the JSON file as needed.

The Core Issue: Permission Denied Error

While the workflow successfully performs scraping and data updates, it encounters an error when attempting to push changes:

Run git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
[main bc70e68] Update ice times [auto]
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 26 deletions(-)
remote: Permission to (repository) denied to github-actions[bot].
fatal: unable to access '(repository URL)': The requested URL returned error: 403

This error indicates that the bot account lacks sufficient permissions to push changes to the repository.

Potential Causes and Solutions:

1. Token Permissions:
2. Ensure that the Personal Access Token (PAT) used by GitHub Actions has the necessary scopes, such as repo (full control of private repositories).

3. Verify that the token is correctly configured as a secret in your repository settings and is used in your workflow.

4. Repository Settings:

5. Confirm that the token is granted access to the repository, especially if it’s a private repository.

6. Check branch protection rules that might restrict direct pushes or require reviews, which could interfere with automated commits.

7. Workflow Configuration:

8. Ensure that your workflow YAML file correctly references the secret token.
9. Example snippet:
   “`yaml
   • name: Push changes
     uses: actions/checkout@v2
     with:
     token: ${{ secrets.YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET }}
     “`
10. Make