GITHUB_HEAD_REF is inconsistent

[SamuraiTheNinja]

Opposite from this topic: GITHUB_REF is inconsistent
I need the name of the branch from within my GitHub actions.

Issue:

• On pull_request event → expected outcome, I can use the environment variable github.head_ref to get the name of the branch since github.ref is a pull request
• On pull_request_review event → github.head_ref is empty, but github.ref still reflects the pull request, leaving me without the branch name in this case.

Workflow that requires this:

There are branch protection rules in place on master to prevent anyone (including the GitHub action as we can’t exclude it) from pushing to master. So the file that gets changed within the action needs to be pushed to the pull request incoming branch. We also require pull requests be approved by a reviewer before they can be merged. So we do not want this to fire on a pull_request, but only on the pull_request_review (since no pull_request_approved event exists)

I verified this behavior by echoing both github.head_ref and github.ref for a pull_request event, and in a separate pull request for the event pull_request_review.

Any help is appreciated

[otter-computer]

Hi @SamuraiTheNinja, welcome to the GitHub Support Community! Is it the head ref you’re looking for? I think you’ll be able to get this from inside the github.event context at github.event.pull_request.head.ref for both of these.

There’s example payloads for the webhook events that trigger workflows on this page so I’d recommend double checking that this is what you’re looking for.

[SamuraiTheNinja]

Thank you @thomasshaped that has solved the problem I was having. Finding the right documentation for most of GitHub Actions has been a nightmare, so I really appreciate the help!

[hafizmuhammadshoaib]

Hey can you guys help me with the following thing

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [develop, staging, qa, delivery-ops-qa]
jobs:
  dev_job:
    if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref == 'refs/heads/develop' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Configure DEV AWS Credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_DEV }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY_DEV }}
          aws-region: ap-southeast-1
      - name: Run CodeBuild
        uses: aws-actions/aws-codebuild-run-build@v1
        with:
          project-name: dev-delivery-ops-api-prebuild
  stg_job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if:  ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref == 'refs/heads/staging' }}
    steps:
      - name: Configure STAGING AWS Credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_STAGING }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY_STAGING }}
          aws-region: ap-southeast-1
      - name: Run CodeBuild
        uses: aws-actions/aws-codebuild-run-build@v1
        with:
          project-name: staging-delivery-ops-api-prebuild
  qa_job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if:  ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref == 'refs/heads/qa' || github.event.pull_request.head.ref == 'refs/heads/delivery-ops-qa'}}
    steps:
      - name: Configure QA AWS Credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_QA }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY_QA }}
          aws-region: ap-southeast-1
      - name: Run CodeBuild
        uses: aws-actions/aws-codebuild-run-build@v1
        with:
          project-name: qa-delivery-ops-api-prebuild

the problem is that none of my job triggers when I create a pull request against the following branches posted in my code. can you guys please help me with this

CC: @ThomasShaped1