Controlling permissions for GITHUB_TOKEN

Modify the default permissions granted to GITHUB_TOKEN.

In this article

Overview

You can use permissions to modify the default permissions granted to the GITHUB_TOKEN, adding or removing access as required, so that you only allow the minimum required access. For more information, see "Automatic token authentication."

You can use permissions either as a top-level key, to apply to all jobs in the workflow, or within specific jobs. When you add the permissions key within a specific job, all actions and run commands within that job that use the GITHUB_TOKEN gain the access rights you specify. For more information, see jobs.<job_id>.permissions.

For each of the available permissions, shown in the table below, you can assign one of the access levels: read (if applicable), write, or none. write includes read. If you specify the access for any of these permissions, all of those that are not specified are set to none.

Available permissions and details of what each allows an action to do:

PermissionAllows an action using GITHUB_TOKEN to
actionsWork with GitHub Actions. For example, actions: write permits an action to cancel a workflow run. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
attestationsWork with artifact attestations. For example, attestations: write permits an action to generate an artifact attestation for a build. For more information, see "Using artifact attestations to establish provenance for builds"
checksWork with check runs and check suites. For example, checks: write permits an action to create a check run. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
contentsWork with the contents of the repository. For example, contents: read permits an action to list the commits, and contents: write allows the action to create a release. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
deploymentsWork with deployments. For example, deployments: write permits an action to create a new deployment. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
discussionsWork with GitHub Discussions. For example, discussions: write permits an action to close or delete a discussion. For more information, see "Using the GraphQL API for Discussions."
id-tokenFetch an OpenID Connect (OIDC) token. This requires id-token: write. For more information, see "About security hardening with OpenID Connect"
issuesWork with issues. For example, issues: write permits an action to add a comment to an issue. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
packagesWork with GitHub Packages. For example, packages: write permits an action to upload and publish packages on GitHub Packages. For more information, see "About permissions for GitHub Packages."
pagesWork with GitHub Pages. For example, pages: write permits an action to request a GitHub Pages build. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
pull-requestsWork with pull requests. For example, pull-requests: write permits an action to add a label to a pull request. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
repository-projectsWork with GitHub projects (classic). For example, repository-projects: write permits an action to add a column to a project (classic). For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
security-eventsWork with GitHub code scanning and Dependabot alerts. For example, security-events: read permits an action to list the Dependabot alerts for the repository, and security-events: write allows an action to update the status of a code scanning alert. For more information, see "Repository permissions for 'Code scanning alerts'" and "Repository permissions for 'Dependabot alerts'" in "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."
statusesWork with commit statuses. For example, statuses:read permits an action to list the commit statuses for a given reference. For more information, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps."

Defining access for the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions

You can define the access that the GITHUB_TOKEN will permit by specifying read, write, or none as the value of the available permissions within the permissions key.

permissions:
  actions: read|write|none
  attestations: read|write|none
  checks: read|write|none
  contents: read|write|none
  deployments: read|write|none
  id-token: write|none
  issues: read|write|none
  discussions: read|write|none
  packages: read|write|none
  pages: read|write|none
  pull-requests: read|write|none
  repository-projects: read|write|none
  security-events: read|write|none
  statuses: read|write|none

If you specify the access for any of these permissions, all of those that are not specified are set to none.

You can use the following syntax to define one of read-all or write-all access for all of the available permissions:

permissions: read-all

permissions: write-all

You can use the following syntax to disable permissions for all of the available permissions:

permissions: {}

Changing the permissions in a forked repository

You can use the permissions key to add and remove read permissions for forked repositories, but typically you can't grant write access. The exception to this behavior is where an admin user has selected the Send write tokens to workflows from pull requests option in the GitHub Actions settings. For more information, see "Managing GitHub Actions settings for a repository."

Setting the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions for all jobs in a workflow

You can specify permissions at the top level of a workflow, so that the setting applies to all jobs in the workflow.

Example: Setting the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions for an entire workflow

This example shows permissions being set for the GITHUB_TOKEN that will apply to all jobs in the workflow. All permissions are granted read access.

name: "My workflow"

on: [ push ]

permissions: read-all

jobs:
  ...

Setting the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions for a specific job

For a specific job, you can use jobs.<job_id>.permissions to modify the default permissions granted to the GITHUB_TOKEN, adding or removing access as required, so that you only allow the minimum required access. For more information, see "Automatic token authentication."

By specifying the permission within a job definition, you can configure a different set of permissions for the GITHUB_TOKEN for each job, if required. Alternatively, you can specify the permissions for all jobs in the workflow. For information on defining permissions at the workflow level, see permissions.

Example: Setting the GITHUB_TOKEN permissions for one job in a workflow

This example shows permissions being set for the GITHUB_TOKEN that will only apply to the job named stale. Write access is granted for the issues and pull-requests permissions. All other permissions will have no access.

jobs:
  stale:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    permissions:
      issues: write
      pull-requests: write

    steps:
      - uses: actions/stale@v5