← Challenges
GitHub Actions: The Secret That Isn't
Description
Your CI deploy step suddenly fails. The error says AWS credentials are empty. You check GitHub Secrets — they're there. The workflow file hasn't changed. Nobody touched the secrets.
But someone renamed the default branch from main to production. The secrets are stored in a GitHub Environment with branch protection rules. The environment only allows the main branch pattern, which no longer exists.
What is the branch name pattern configured on the aws-prod environment that needs to be updated?
The secrets are right there. GitHub just won't give them to you.
Input Data
```yaml
# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy to Production
on:
push:
branches: [production]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
environment: aws-prod
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Configure AWS
uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
with:
aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
aws-region: us-east-1
- name: Deploy
run: aws s3 sync ./dist s3://app-prod-bucket
```
```
# Actions log:
Error: Input required and not supplied: aws-access-key-id
# Environment settings (admin view):
Environment: aws-prod
Deployment branches: Selected branches
Branch name pattern: main
Environment secrets:
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ****
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ****
# The workflow now runs on the "production" branch, but the
# environment only allows "main". GitHub silently withholds
# secrets rather than failing with a clear error.
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