I cannot git push into github refusing to allow a Personal Access Token to create or update workflow

[kristijorgji]

Hi, after adding in my local repository .github and one workflow I cannot push anymore to github.

Doing git push I get this error

! [remote rejected] ok -> ok (refusing to allow a Personal Access Token to create or update workflow `.github/workflows/checks.yaml` without `workflow` scope)
error: failed to push some refs to

The content of .github/workflows/checks.yaml are

name: Checks
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]
jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
  - name: "Checkout" # Download code from the repository
    uses: actions/checkout@v2 # Public action
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0 # Checkout all branches and tags

  - name: "Use NodeJS" # Setup node using version 14
    uses: actions/setup-node@v2 # Public action
    with:
      node-version: '16.4.0'

  - name: "Setup npm" # Add our registry to npm config
    run: | # Custom action
      npm set @kristijorgji:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com/kristijorgji
      npm set "//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
      - name: Install dependencies

  run: | # Install and link dependencies
    yarn install --frozen-lockfile
    npx lerna bootstrap

  - name: Run tests # Run tests of all packages
    run: npx lerna exec npm run test

[Simran-B]

refusing to allow a Personal Access Token to create or update workflow .github/workflows/checks.yaml without workflow scope)

Sounds like the PAT misses the necessary permission? Make sure it has the workflow scope ticked.

[linonetwo]

No, I'm using Github Desktop, where to modify its PAT?

[linonetwo]

Check your repo url, to see if there is a bad PAT already inside it.

[kristijorgji]

Thank you yes I created a new personal token then was able to push and create pull request after modifying .github/workflow files
(i had old token locally set up in mac keychain without workflow permissions before and therefore having the error)

[LakshmiSanikommu]

hey , i have generated the personal token with workflow access , can i know where i need to add this to get accessible for all repos ?

[brainartfu]

Me too. I have generated the personal token with workflow access, But when I push to my repository, It keep same error.

[ArthurMro]

@LakshmiSanikommu @brainartfu I struggled with that part too. Here is the step by step, assuming you have already build your local repo and want to push it to a remote repo.

1. create a PAT (personal access token): official doc here. Make sure to tick the box "workflow" when creating it.
2. In the terminal, instead of the classic
   git remote add origin https://github.com/<account>/<repo>.git
   swap it by
   git remote add origin https://<PAT>@github.com/<account>/<repo>.git
3. Follow-up with the classic git branch -M main and git push -u origin main

That worked for me. Hopefully for you too.

[Ambro19]

@cybr71 @kristijorgji There are two types of PAT (Fine-grained and Tokens(classic)). Please can you tell us which on to choose. I have generated PAT for both. But I am not sure which one to use.

[cybr71]

Hello kristijorgji,
Greetings!

You have to generate new token with workflow scope permission. It’ll resolve your issue.
Please make sure workflow is selected while creating new token.

Thanks!
Best Regards,
Md. Saidur Rahman

[piotr-cz]

I was able to update existing token by adding the workflow rule

[AhmadMujtaba200210]

yeah but how to use it?

[invzbl3]

I've reproduced the same issue and if someone needs to refresh steps how to create a personal access token in GitHub, this video will be helpful for you.

[imukherjee-wdc]

Easiest fix seems like just updating the existing token with additional scope 'workflow' ... worked for me.

[01walid]

For those using gh CLI and authenticated against Github with gh auth login flow, you'll need to pass -s to request additional scopes.

So re-authenticate again with gh auth login -s workflow.

[Zaulao]

This should be the highlighted answer! Thanks!

[chylex]

I already had workflow enabled in my token, but it didn't work... I had to configure Windows Credential Manager to use PersonalAccessToken as the username and the token as the password.

I don't get why this is a problem when I have GitHub Actions disabled on all my repositories. I'm trying to update a fork, the fork added a workflow file, and suddenly I can't push into my own fork to make a PR against the most recent version of the upstream branch. Pretty annoying...

[schakrabortygithub]

Recently I faced this issue.
Simplest solution is to go the Personal Access Token page of your GitHub profile and modify that token to include the 'workflow' scope.
Go to Settings-> Developer setttings->Personal access tokens-> Tokens(classic)

[FaizIkhwan]

Thank you, this solve my issue.

[EliLazarus]

I would mark this one, super user friendly to go through the Github website.