Deploying to external repository, getting access denied

[emmahsax]

Hello.

I'm trying to use this to deploy to an external repository. This is what my workflow yml looks like:

    - name: Deploy and Publish Site
      uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@releases/v3
      with:
        ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
        REPOSITORY_NAME: orgname/destination-github-repository
        BRANCH: main
        FOLDER: _site
        COMMIT_MESSAGE: "Publishing site to orgname/destination-github-repository"
        GIT_CONFIG_EMAIL: [email protected]
        GIT_CONFIG_NAME: github-user

I've made a personal access token for the github-user account, and put it as a secret (DEPLOY_ACCESS_TOKEN) on the source repository (the repository that this action is running on). I've selected for that access token to have access to private repositories, and the user also has access to the orgname/destination-github-repository.

But when the action actually goes to run, the build errors with this:

remote: Permission to orgname/destination-github-repository.git denied to github-actions[bot].

Why is it trying to deploy as github-actions[bot]? I thought I was setting it to use the github-user account with the GIT_CONFIG_EMAIL setting. How do I force this action to use my github-user account and email to commit?

@JamesIves The documentation sort of implies that I can use the GIT_CONFIG_EMAIL setting to set which GitHub user is doing the commit, but maybe that's not the case?

[emmahsax]

Hmm.... actually after more digging, I guess it works with SSH as well. If I set ssh: true, and then do the steps here: https://github.com/JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action/tree/dev#using-an-ssh-deploy-key-, it works. I added the public key (*.pub) to the destination repository, and the private key as a secret on the source repository. Thanks for the decent documentation on using the SSH keys!

[JamesIves]

I'm glad it works. Just an FYI we're modifying how the SSH stuff works in version 4 so you won't rely on a third party action.

Reference: #524

[emmahsax]

Oh, that's great to hear! I'm excited for the next version already!

EDIT: wow, it looks like v4 has a lot of great changes coming! I'm excited to start using it once it's officially released!