Error running locally using act: ACTION_TOKEN variable not set

[LukeSavefrogs]

Running the following causes the workflow to fail with the error in the subject:

- name: Install composer dependencies
  uses: php-actions/composer@v6
  with:
    php_version: '8.2'
    args: --no-dev --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

I tried adding ACTION_TOKEN as an env variable but it still doesn't work:

- name: Install composer dependencies
  uses: php-actions/composer@v6
  with:
    php_version: '8.2'
    args: --no-dev --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader
  env:
    ACTION_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The action does NOT work even removing all optional parameters:

- name: Install composer dependencies
  uses: php-actions/composer@v6

[g105b]

Are you running this on Github or a self-hosted runner?

[LukeSavefrogs]

Are you running this on Github or a self-hosted runner?

I'm using act to test the action locally

[g105b]

Ok thank you. It would be super useful to use act, so I'll try and replicate and figure out a fix, but I've never had much luck with act - it "feels" like GitHub actions, but it isn't really running anything official and there are lots of gaps, in my experience.

[LukeSavefrogs]

Ok thank you. It would be super useful to use act, so I'll try and replicate and figure out a fix, but I've never had much luck with act - it "feels" like GitHub actions, but it isn't really running anything official and there are lots of gaps, in my experience.

Thank you for your patience @g105b.

Until now I've found act very useful in most of the cases to test actions locally before deploying. Only times I couldn't use it is for Windows/macOs runners (which do not support natively and i didn't have the time to find how to configure properly) or very rarely with some actions (as in this case)

[SierraKomodo]

After some digging and research on my end, I've found a solution - It's essentially an extra step needed in running act with this, or any other action that needs an ACTION_TOKEN.

Some relevant links:

• Issue report on nektos/act that pointed me in the right direction: Unable run act on scripts that are using php-actions/php-build nektos/act#1228
• User guide section on secrets: https://nektosact.com/beginner/index.html#secrets

I have act installed as a github cli extension, so the solution for me was to simply add -s GITHUB_TOKEN="$(gh auth token)" as an argument to my gh act call, and that resolved the ACTION_TOKEN error.

If you don't use it as a github cli extension, it looks like you can also resolve this by:

• Creating a GitHub personal access token, per the instructions here: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/managing-your-personal-access-tokens
• Adding a file to your project to store secrets (I highly recommend adding this filename to your user .gitignore or at least the project .gitignore)
• Adding GITHUB_TOKEN=your-token-here to the above secrets file
• Adding the following to your act call: --secret-file path-to-secrets-file

[g105b]

Thank you so much @SierraKomodo. I hadn't used ACT personally, so this will really help me get going, and once I've learnt how to use it I'll add some documentation to this repo for future ACT users.