Troubleshooting GitHub Actions Permissions: Overcoming Commit Access Issues

Managing automated workflows with GitHub Actions can significantly streamline your development process, especially when it involves updating files directly in your repositories. However, encountering permission errors during commit attempts is a common hurdle, particularly for those new to web development and automation.

Understanding the Challenge

In my current project, I’ve built a web scraper that extracts data from an external calendar and saves this information into a JSON file. This JSON data serves as the backbone for my static website, which displays updated calendar information. To automate this process, I use GitHub Actions—my go-to free automation platform.

The problem arises during the step where the workflow tries to commit the updated JSON file back to the repository. Despite configuring a personal access token (PAT) supposedly with sufficient permissions, the process consistently fails, citing a lack of access rights. Here’s a typical error message:

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 link]': The requested URL returned error: 403

Potential Causes and Solutions

1. Verify the Token Permissions
   Ensure that the PAT you’ve generated has the correct scope. For repository modifications, it should include at least the repo scope (full control of private repositories). Multiple scopes or incorrect permissions can prevent successful commits.

2. Use the Correct Token in Your Workflow
   Double-check that your workflow file is referencing the right secret and that the secret contains the correct token. For example:

yaml
- name: Commit changes
run: |
git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
git config --global user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
git add data.json
git commit -m "Update calendar data"
git push origin main
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

1. Utilize the GITHUB_TOKEN Provided by GitHub
   GitHub automatically creates GITHUB_TOKEN secrets for workflows. However, note that this token has limited permissions by default, especially for repositories with private settings or certain branch protections. If using GITHUB_TOKEN, verify its permissions