Understanding and Resolving GitHub Actions Permission Issues for Automated File Updates

If you’re leveraging GitHub Actions to automate data extraction and storage for your project, encountering access restrictions can be frustrating—especially when the workflow runs smoothly until it reaches the commit stage. Many developers, particularly those new to web development, face challenges with permissions and authentication when trying to push updates to their repositories.

The Scenario:
Imagine you’ve built a scraper that pulls data from an external calendar, converts it into JSON format, and then displays this data on your website. To automate this process, you set up a GitHub Actions workflow that runs periodically, performs the scraping, and updates your JSON files in the repository. Everything works well until the workflow attempts to commit these changes. At that point, it fails with a permission error, claiming it lacks access rights.

Common Cause:
This issue often stems from incorrect or insufficient access tokens configured within your GitHub Actions workflow. Even if you have generated a token, it must have the appropriate scopes (permissions) to allow pushing to your repository.

Typical Error Message:
Run git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
[main ...] 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

Steps to Troubleshoot and Fix the Issue:

1. Ensure Proper Token Generation:
2. Visit your GitHub account settings and navigate to the Developer Settings → Personal Access Tokens.
3. Generate a new token with the repo scope, which grants full control of private repositories, or select the minimal scopes necessary for your use case.

4. Store this token securely in your GitHub Secrets (e.g., GITHUB_TOKEN, ACCESS_TOKEN).

5. Configure the Workflow Correctly:

6. In your workflow YAML file, make sure you’re authenticating using the secret token:
   “`yaml

   • name: Checkout repository
     uses: actions/checkout@v2
     with:
     token: ${{ secrets.ACCESS_TOKEN }}
     “`

7. Verify Permissions:

8. If using the default GITHUB_TOKEN, ensure that your repository settings permit the Actions to make write operations.
9. For more control, using a PAT (