GitHub Action for GitHub Push

The GitHub Actions for pushing local changes to GitHub using an authorized GitHub token.

Use Cases

• update new code placed in your repository, e.g. by running a linter on it,
• track changes in script results using Git as an archive,
• publish page using GitHub-Pages,
• mirror changes to a separate repository.

Requirements and Prerequisites

To ensure your GitHub Actions workflows function correctly, it's important to configure the GITHUB_TOKEN with the appropriate access rights for each repository.

Follow these steps to set up the necessary permissions:

1. Navigate to your repository on GitHub.
2. Click on Settings located in the repository toolbar.
3. In the left sidebar, click on Actions.
4. Under the Actions settings, find and click on General.
5. Scroll down to the Workflow permissions section.
6. You will see the default permission setting for the GITHUB_TOKEN. Click on the Read and write permissions option.
7. With this setting, your workflow will be able to read the repository's contents and push back changes, which is required for using this GitHub Action.

Make sure to save your changes before exiting the settings page.

Note

Granting Read and write permissions allows workflows to modify your repository, including adding or updating files and code. Always ensure that you trust the workflows you enable with these permissions.

The GITHUB_TOKEN permissions can also be configured globally for all jobs in a workflow or individually for each job.

This example demonstrates how to set the necessary permissions for the contents and pull-requests scopes on a job level:

jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:                # Job-level permissions configuration starts here
      contents: write           # 'write' access to repository contents
      pull-requests: write      # 'write' access to pull requests
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

To apply permissions globally, which will affect all jobs within the workflow, you would define the permissions key at the root level of the workflow file, like so:

permissions:                    # Global permissions configuration starts here
  contents: read                # 'read' access to repository contents
  pull-requests: write          # 'write' access to pull requests
jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

Adjust the permission levels and scopes according to your workflow's requirements. For further details on each permission level, consult the GitHub documentation.

Usage

Example Workflow file

An example workflow to authenticate with GitHub Platform and to push the changes to a specified reference, e.g. an already available branch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        persist-credentials: false # otherwise, the token used is the GITHUB_TOKEN, instead of your personal access token.
        fetch-depth: 0 # otherwise, there would be errors pushing refs to the destination repository.
    - name: Create local changes
      run: |
        ...
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        branch: ${{ github.ref }}

An example workflow to use the branch parameter to push the changes to a specified branch e.g. a Pull Request branch:

name: Example
on: [pull_request, pull_request_target]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        branch: ${{ github.head_ref }}

An example workflow to use the force-with-lease parameter to force push to a repository:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        force_with_lease: true

An example workflow to use a GitHub App Token together with the default token inside the checkout action. You can find more information on the topic here:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        fetch-depth: 0
        persist-credentials: false
    - name: Generate Githup App Token
      id: generate_token
      uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1
      with:
        app_id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
        installation_id: ${{ secrets.INSTALLATION_ID }}
        private_key:  ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "test@test.com"
        git config --local user.name "Test"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        github_token: ${{ env.TOKEN }}

An example workflow to use the non default token push to another repository. Be aware that the force-with-lease flag is in such a case not possible:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        fetch-depth: 0
        token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "test@test.com"
        git config --local user.name "Test"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}
        repository: Test/test
        force: true

An example workflow to update/ overwrite an existing tag:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git tag -d $GITHUB_REF_NAME
        git tag $GITHUB_REF_NAME
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        force: true
        tags: true

An example workflow to authenticate with GitHub Platform via Deploy Keys or in general SSH:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
        persist-credentials: true
    - name: Create local changes
      run: |
        ...
    - name: Commit files
      run: |
        git config --local user.email "41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
        git config --local user.name "github-actions[bot]"
        git commit -a -m "Add changes"
    - name: Push changes
      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
      with:
        ssh: true
        branch: ${{ github.ref }}

An example workflow to push to a protected branch inside your repository. Be aware that it is necessary to use a personal access token and use it inside the actions/checkout action. It may be a good idea to specify the force-with-lease flag in case of sync and push errors. If you want to generate an adequate personal access token, you can follow these instructions:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
          fetch-depth: 0
          token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}
      - name: Commit files
        run: |
          git config --local user.email "test@test.com"
          git config --local user.name "Test"
          git commit -a -m "Add changes"
      - name: Push changes
        uses: ad-m/github-push-action@master
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}
          repository: Test/test
          force_with_lease: true

Inputs

name	value	default	description
github_token	string	${{ github.token }}	GITHUB_TOKEN or a repo scoped Personal Access Token.
ssh	boolean	false	Determines if ssh/ Deploy Keys is used.
branch	string	(default)	Destination branch to push changes. Can be passed in using ${{ github.ref }}.
force	boolean	false	Determines if force push is used.
force_with_lease	boolean	false	Determines if force-with-lease push is used. Please specify the corresponding branch inside ref section of the checkout action e.g. ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}. Be aware, if you want to update the branch and the corresponding tag please use the force parameter instead of the force_with_lease option.
atomic	boolean	true	Determines if atomic push is used.
push_to_submodules	string	'on-demand'	Determines if --recurse-submodules= is used. The value defines the used strategy.
push_only_tags	boolean	false	Determines if the action should only push the tags, default false
tags	boolean	false	Determines if --tags is used.
directory	string	'.'	Directory to change to before pushing.
repository	string	''	Repository name. Default or empty repository name represents current github repository. If you want to push to other repository, you should make a personal access token and use it as the github_token input.

Troubleshooting

If you see the following error inside the output of the job, and you want to update an existing Tag:

To https://github.com/Test/test_repository
 ! [rejected]        0.0.9 -> 0.0.9 (stale info)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/Test/test_repository'

Please use the force instead the force_with_lease parameter. The update of the tag is with the --force-with-lease parameter not possible.

License

The Dockerfile and associated scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License.

No affiliation with GitHub Inc.

GitHub are registered trademarks of GitHub, Inc. GitHub name used in this project are for identification purposes only. The project is not associated in any way with GitHub Inc. and is not an official solution of GitHub Inc. It was made available in order to facilitate the use of the site GitHub.