Accessing GH context in actions #26326

jnus · 2021-10-12T14:21:18Z

jnus
Oct 12, 2021

Is there anyway to access the GH context from within an action, without having to specify e.g. env og secrets as inputs for the action? Right now I serialize e.g. secrets as a parameter for the action and deserialize within the action.

Thoughts?

Answered by rcowsill

Oct 26, 2021

I don’t think it’s currently possible to access the context directly.

Consider github-script, which provides a partial context containing some of the items from the workflow github context. That partial context is actually just rehydrated from the environment. If it were possible to get the real context directly it would make sense for github-script to do that. The fact it doesn’t suggests it’s not possible.

One workaround is to add inputs to your action, but set the default using the context, eg:

  <a href="https://github.com/actions/github-script/blob/00e1b58cd9e040d944127e75b3d9df586e4b0479/action.yml#L13" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">github.com</a>

actions/github-scrip…

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jnus · 2021-10-26T12:07:40Z

jnus
Oct 26, 2021
Author

Can anyone confirm that accessing GH context is not possible within an action, without specifying it as a parameter input?

0 replies

rcowsill · 2021-10-26T15:11:31Z

rcowsill
Oct 26, 2021

I don’t think it’s currently possible to access the context directly.

Consider github-script, which provides a partial context containing some of the items from the workflow github context. That partial context is actually just rehydrated from the environment. If it were possible to get the real context directly it would make sense for github-script to do that. The fact it doesn’t suggests it’s not possible.

One workaround is to add inputs to your action, but set the default using the context, eg:

  <a href="https://github.com/actions/github-script/blob/00e1b58cd9e040d944127e75b3d9df586e4b0479/action.yml#L13" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">github.com</a>

actions/github-script/blob/00e1b58cd9e040d944127e75b3d9df586e4b0479/action.yml#L13

    
      
          description: Run simple scripts using the GitHub client
          branding:
            color: blue
            icon: code
          inputs:
            script:
              description: The script to run
              required: true
            github-token:
              description: The GitHub token used to create an authenticated client
              default: ${{ github.token }}
              required: false
            debug:
              description: Whether to tell the GitHub client to log details of its requests
              default: false
            user-agent:
              description: An optional user-agent string
              default: actions/github-script
            previews:
              description: A comma-separated list of API previews to accept
            result-encoding:

That’s ok if it makes sense to give users of the action the option to override the default value.

0 replies

jnus · 2021-10-26T20:07:46Z

jnus
Oct 26, 2021
Author

That’s a pretty good idea and letting the user option out by overriding the inputs makes perfectly sense. In my case I need access to both the github and secrets context for setting up variables based on the environment context in the json-variables action. The default assignment makes usage syntax far more clean, while still being able to overwrite.
Thanks!

0 replies

kwin · 2021-11-18T14:31:10Z

kwin
Nov 18, 2021

But it is explicitly stated in Automatic token authentication - GitHub Docs

Important: An action can access the GITHUB_TOKEN through the github.token context even if the workflow does not explicitly pass the GITHUB_TOKEN to the action.

Is this just plain wrong?

0 replies

josecelano · 2022-05-30T18:29:37Z

josecelano
May 30, 2022

I was wondering exactly the same thing. I think the way to get the GITHUB_TOKEN using the context is using a default input value. You can see an example in the GitHub actions/checkout@v2 action:

  <a href="https://github.com/actions/checkout/blob/2541b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8596b/action.yml#L24" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">github.com</a>

actions/checkout/blob/2541b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8596b/action.yml#L24

<pre class="onebox">      <code class="lang-yml">
    <ol class="start lines" start="14" style="counter-reset: li-counter 13 ;">
        <li>    Personal access token (PAT) used to fetch the repository. The PAT is configured

with the local git config, which enables your scripts to run authenticated git

commands. The post-job step removes the PAT.

We recommend using a service account with the least permissions necessary.

Also when generating a new PAT, select the least scopes necessary.

[Learn more about creating and using encrypted secrets](https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/creating-and-using-encrypted-secrets)

default: ${{ github.token }}

ssh-key:

description: >

SSH key used to fetch the repository. The SSH key is configured with the local

git config, which enables your scripts to run authenticated git commands.

The post-job step removes the SSH key.

We recommend using a service account with the least permissions necessary.

As far as I know there are some ways to pass values to the action:

Inputs in the step (with): Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions - GitHub Docs
Arguments in the step (args): Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions - GitHub Docs
Environments variables in the step (env): Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions - GitHub Docs

And:

Default input value in the action definition yml file(default): checkout/action.yml at 2541b1294d2704b0964813337f33b291d3f8596b · actions/checkout · GitHub

I have not found any information in the documentation regarding using contexts in the action definition file. It is not mentioned in the action.yml syntax: Metadata syntax for GitHub Actions - GitHub Docs

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