Troubleshooting GitHub Actions: How to Resolve Permission Issues When Committing Files

If you’re using GitHub Actions to automate data scraping and updates on your WordPress project, you might encounter an obstacle: permission errors during the commit process. Recently, I faced a similar challenge where my workflow would run perfectly up to the point of trying to push changes, only to be blocked by access restrictions.

Understanding the Root Cause

In my case, even after setting up a personal access token (PAT) intended to grant the workflow necessary permissions, GitHub would still deny access with error messages like:

remote: Permission to (repository) denied to github-actions[bot].
fatal: unable to access '(repository URL)': The requested URL returned error: 403
Error: Process completed with exit code 128.

This indicates that the GitHub Actions bot doesn’t have the required write permissions to commit changes directly to the repository.

Key Steps to Fix Permission Denials

1. Review and Update Your Personal Access Token (PAT):
   Ensure that your token includes the appropriate scopes, such as repo, which grants full control of private repositories. You can generate a new token with the necessary permissions from your GitHub account settings.

2. Store the Token Securely as a Repository Secret:
   In your repository settings, under Secrets and Variables, add the token as a secret (e.g., GITHUB_TOKEN or another descriptive name).

3. Configure Your Workflow to Use the Secret Correctly:
   In your GitHub Actions YAML file, reference the secret when configuring git, for example:

yaml
- name: Configure Git
run: |
git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git remote set-url origin https://x-access-token:${{ secrets.YOUR_SECRET_NAME }}@github.com/username/repository.git

1. Check the Permissions for the Default GITHUB_TOKEN:
   GitHub automatically provides a GITHUB_TOKEN secret with limited permissions, which may not be sufficient for certain operations like pushing to protected branches. If so, generate a PAT with the appropriate scopes and use that instead.

2. Verify Branch Protection Rules:
   Ensure your repository’s branch policies (e.g., restrictions on direct pushes) are aligned with your automation workflow.

Additional Considerations

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