[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #56407: Rerun GitHub Action workflows on the first failure

[WordPress Trac]

#56407: Rerun GitHub Action workflows on the first failure
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 Reporter:  desrosj           |       Owner:  desrosj
     Type:  enhancement       |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  6.1
Component:  Build/Test Tools  |     Version:
 Severity:  normal            |  Resolution:  fixed
 Keywords:  has-patch commit  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by desrosj):

 Great question, @TobiasBg!

 I definitely wanted to just use `GITHUB_TOKEN` instead. But in my testing,
 `GITHUB_TOKEN` I found that does not have the required permissions to
 modify workflow runs through the REST API.

 The documentation for creating a workflow dispatch event mentions
 `actions:write` is
 [https://docs.github.com/en/rest/actions/workflows#create-a-workflow-
 dispatch-event required, but that specifically mentions GitHub Apps].

 GitHub Actions does [https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows
 /workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#permissions support specifying custom
 permissions in a workflow] through `permissions` at the top or job level,
 but in my testing, even specifying `permissions: write-all` had no effect.

 It can also be a bit hard to get to the bottom of because calling
 `github.rest.actions.createWorkflowDispatch()` with a token lacking the
 required permissions still returns a `204` status (the one
 [https://docs.github.com/en/rest/actions/workflows#create-a-workflow-
 dispatch-event documented as expected]). But eventually, I found the
 [https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-
 workflows/triggering-a-workflow#triggering-a-workflow-from-a-workflow
 right documentation on this here].

 > When you use the repository's `GITHUB_TOKEN` to perform tasks, events
 triggered by the `GITHUB_TOKEN` will not create a new workflow run. This
 prevents you from accidentally creating recursive workflow runs... If you
 do want to trigger a workflow from within a workflow run, you can use a
 personal access token instead of `GITHUB_TOKEN` to trigger events that
 require a token.

 So seems that it's an intentional design decision to prevent user error.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56407#comment:9>
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