Unexpected intermittent error when running changeset in Github workflow

[pavinduLakshan]

Im getting the following error intermittently in the github workflow changeset step.

2025-02-24T13:56:02.9790461Z Done in 29.3s
2025-02-24T13:56:14.5804990Z [command]/usr/bin/git status --porcelain
2025-02-24T13:56:14.5921466Z /home/runner/work/_actions/changesets/action/v1.4.9/dist/index.js:1
2025-02-24T13:56:14.6415388Z (()=>{var webpack_modules={87351:function(e,t,r){"use strict";var n=this&&this.__createBinding||(Object.create?function(e,t,r,n){if(n===undefined)n=r;Object.defineProperty(e,n,{enumerable:true,get:function(){return t[r]}})}:function(e,t,r,n){if(n===undefined)n=r;e[n]=t[r]});var a=this&&this.__setModuleDefault||(Object.create?function(e,t){Object.defineProperty(e,"default",{enumerable:true,value:t})}:function(e,t){e["default"]=t});var i=this&&this.__importStar||function(e){if(e&&e.__esModule)return e;var t={};if(e!=null)for(var r in e)if(r!=="default"&&Object.hasOwnProperty.call(e,r))n(t,e,r);a(t,e);return t};Object.defineProperty(t,"__esModule",{value:true});t.issue=t.issueCommand=void 0;const s=i(r(22037));const o=r(5278);function issueCommand(e,t,r){const n=new Command(e,t,r);process.stdout.write(n.toString()+s.EOL)}t.issueCommand=issueCommand;function issue(e,t=""){issueCommand(e,{},t)}t.issue=issue;const p="::";class Command{constructor(e,t,r){if(!e){e="missing.command"}this.command=e;this.properties=t;this.message=r}toString(){let e=p+this.command;if(this.properties&&Object.keys(this.properties).length>0){e+=" ";let t=true;for(const r in this.properties){if(this.properties.hasOwnProperty(r)){const n=this.properties[r];if(n){if(t){t=false}else{e+=","}e+=${r}=${escapeProperty(n)}}}}}e+=${p}${escapeData(this.message)};return e}}function escapeData(e){return o.toCommandValue(e).replace(/%/g,"%25").replace(/\r/g,"%0D").replace(/\n/g,"%0A")}function escapeProperty(e){return o.toCommandValue(e).replace(/%/g,"%25").replace(/\r/g,"%0D").replace(/\n/g,"%0A").replace(/:/g,"%3A").replace(/,/g,"%2C")}},42186:function(e,t,r){"use strict";var n=this&&this.__createBinding||(Object.create?function(e,t,r,n){if(n===undefined)n=r;Object.defineProperty(e,n,{enumerable:true,get:function(){return t[r]}})}:function(e,t,r,n){if(n===undefined)n=r;e[n]=t[r]});var a=this&&this.__setModuleDefault||(Object.create?function(e,t){Object.defineProperty(e,"default",{enumerable:true,value:t})}:function(e,t){e["default"]=t});var i=this&&this.__importStar||function(e){if(e&&e.__esModule....

My workflow file:

https://github.com/wso2/identity-apps/blob/master/.github/workflows/release-workflow.yml

[elpddev]

I got the same recently. I looks like a token authorization problem. the GITHUB_TOKEN does not seems to be sufficient for pushing the branch changeset-main from the github actions vm to the origin repo and open a versions PR.

I tried adding to the workflow the suggested contents: write permission, but that did not help.

permissions:
  contents: write

Eventually I created a PAT - personal-access-token with permission for PR and code write. That fixed the problem for now

[pavinduLakshan]

We had this problem for some time. As we observed, this occurred when the change set pr description is too long. There was an experimental config we were using to update the dependents of all changed packages, so it would update all dependents and add that info to change set pr, which made the pr description too big and caused $subject intermittently.

As a workaround, we removed using that experimental config and intermittent workflow failures didn't occur after that.

[SinZ163]

This also happens if there are precommits active on the repo.
We had to add HUSKY=0 environment variable, along with fixing token authorization issues that others had for it to work correctly and not print the actions webpack bundle at us.

[Andarist]

@pavinduLakshan how many packages do you have?

I don't quite understand the webpack bundle printing issue - could anybody create a repro case of this problem? Without it it's rather hard to investigate this

[somewhatabstract]

I just had this on a single package repo.
https://github.com/somewhatabstract/ancesdir/actions/runs/14287171557/job/40043635551

First time I saw it. I updated to latest changeset CLI prior to this, so I wonder if that's related.

I though this is down to the --force:

But when I enabled that, it still fails. So, I rolled back the changeset change to see if that fixed it, but it still fails.

https://github.com/somewhatabstract/ancesdir/actions/runs/14287426789/job/40044228190

I have no idea why this started happening now. Perhaps the action updated recently so tried an older version but it wasn't working (I didn't keep trying versions).

Asking copilot about the failure, it said:

The job failed because the changeset-release/main branch did not exist initially, causing the git checkout command to fail. The error indicates that the subsequent steps in the changesets action could not proceed as expected.

But that's a red herring, given that is an expected flow - it's clear that the branch gets created.

The issue seems to be that the force push is failing. I don't know why since I've changed nothing around permissions and the PAT being used has repo read/write permissions. Seems like maybe something changed on GitHub's end?

[somewhatabstract]

I don't quite understand the webpack bundle printing issue

I think the webpack output is just the entire minified changeset tool that's being executed to do the force push. I suspect it outputs that it is doing the push, then attempts the push and it fails catastrophically; then the line of the error is written to console, which is just the entire JS script.

[somewhatabstract]

I believe it's this line that is ultimately failing.

action/src/run.ts

Line 379 in ff7179c

await gitUtils.push(versionBranch, { force: true });

Sadly, the error that it encounters isn't included. I ran with verbose mode on and see if that happens to shed any more light on things. It doesn't seem like it did.
https://github.com/somewhatabstract/ancesdir/actions/runs/14287539835/job/40044656574

If I were to guess, I'd say this has something to do with the GITHUB_TOKEN being provided.

So, I generated a brand new classic token with "repo" level access and set that up and it worked! 😅 I wish I had thought of that sooner - super cryptic. I would love to use a fine-grained token, but I'm not sure what permissions this needs to do that.

[somewhatabstract]

I think it would be really nice if the error were output when this happens so that it's easier to resolve. That would probably help everyone that encounters this.

[HokkanenTeemu]

I resolved this issue for myself by adding missing pull-requests: write to permissions.

I think that examples should mention that this permission is required and that it is missing it by default with the secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN that is used in examples.
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/security-for-github-actions/security-guides/automatic-token-authentication#permissions-for-the-github_token