github-action/guides/credentials.md

Workflow credentials

The sync workflow uses two secrets. Give each the least privilege that works, store it only as a Gitea secret, and rotate it when a person with access leaves.

Secret	Content	Used for
TOKEN_FOR_GITEA	The Gitea token, nothing else	Reading the repository (description, topics) and its push mirrors
PAT_FOR_GITHUB	The GitHub token, nothing else	Changing the description and topics of the GitHub mirror

Minimum permissions

These were checked on 2026-10-10 against the Gitea source (the route definitions in routers/api/v1/api.go, main branch) and the GitHub page "Permissions required for fine-grained personal access tokens", for every API call the workflows make. S01, standing in for S05 (ADR-0002), approved them on 2026-10-10. They have not been tested on this instance with a token that holds only these permissions; the checks at the end of this section are the way to do that.

Gitea token (a personal access token of a user, not a deploy key; deploy keys do not work for the REST API):

• scope read:repository: every /repos/... route needs the repository scope, and the calls below only read
• the user must be an administrator of the repository: the push_mirrors routes require repository administration in addition to the token scope

Calls made: GET /repos/{owner}/{repo} and GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/push_mirrors.

GitHub token (fine-grained personal access token):

• Resource owner: the owner of the mirror repository
• Repository access: only the mirror repository
• Repository permission: Administration: Read and write (no other permission); it is needed for PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo} and PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/topics. Metadata: Read is added automatically and covers GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}.
• Set an expiry date

Calls made: GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}, PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo} (description) and PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/topics.

Gitea token for the wiki (see "Wiki publishing secret" below): scope write:repository, because writing a page (POST, PATCH, DELETE under /repos/{owner}/{repo}/wiki) needs the repository scope with write access, and the user needs write access to the repository's wiki. Listing and reading pages needs only the read scope.

Testing the permissions on the instance (optional)

1. In the Gitea settings of the user, the token stored as TOKEN_FOR_GITEA lists only read:repository, the user is an administrator of the repository, and a run still ends with Preflight passed.
2. The GitHub token lists only the mirror repository and Administration: Read and write (plus the automatic Metadata: Read), and a run ends with Preflight passed and Synced description and topics.
3. A throwaway token that lacks one of these permissions makes the run fail with [permissions] (or HTTP 403 for Gitea) and names the category, without printing the token.

Format of PAT_FOR_GITHUB: only the token string (for example github_pat_...), as clear text. The workflow only checks that it is not empty; GitHub rejects a wrong value (HTTP 401).

What the workflow checks before it changes anything

The workflow runs a preflight and writes nothing to GitHub unless it passes:

1. Both secrets exist and have the expected shape.
2. Gitea accepts the token and the repository is visible with it.
3. At most one GitHub push mirror is configured. With none, the run ends successfully without syncing and the GitHub secret is not read.
4. GitHub accepts the token for the mirror repository and the token reports administration access to it.

On success the log says Preflight passed: Gitea and GitHub accepted the credentials. Failures start with a category such as [credentials] or [permissions]; see troubleshooting.md. No secret value is ever printed.

Wiki publishing secret

The workflow Publish wiki copies wiki/ to the Gitea wiki of a repository that has opted in with wiki/.publish (see onboarding.md). It uses its own secret, so the metadata sync token stays read-only.

Secret	Content	Used for
TOKEN_FOR_GITEA_WIKI	The Gitea token, nothing else	Writing the wiki pages of the repositories of an organization that opt in

• Store it as a secret of the organization of each repository that publishes. There is no fallback to TOKEN_FOR_GITEA: a repository that opted in and has no such secret fails with a configuration error, and a repository that did not opt in does not need it.
• The token needs scope write:repository, and its user needs write access to the repositories. Gitea has no wiki-only scope, so create the token for a dedicated user. S05 approves the scope and S03 stores the secret.
• Calls made: GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}, GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/wiki/pages, GET, POST and PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo}/wiki/... and, for a page that no longer exists in wiki/, DELETE /repos/{owner}/{repo}/wiki/page/{name}.
• The wiki must be enabled in the repository settings. The workflow refuses to run when it is not.
• Pages that are in wiki/ are always overwritten from it, so a change made in the Gitea web UI is lost on the next publish. Pages that are only in the wiki are removed only when wiki/.publish contains the word prune.

Rotating a token

1. Create the new token with the permissions above.
2. Replace the secret value in the repository or organization settings.
3. Run the workflow manually and wait for Preflight passed.
4. Revoke the old token.