fix: reusable workflow permissions by AlexHardAtWork · Pull Request #54 · opendefensecloud/dev-kit

AlexHardAtWork · 2026-10-13T14:11:24Z

What

issues-add-labels.yaml asks for permissions: {} instead of contents: read, plus a check for
the class.

Why

The same defect as #53, in its sibling. Missed because the two differ only in on::
add-to-project also fires on pull_request and so broke on every PR, while this fires on
issues: alone and has not run since solution-arsenal moved to v3.

#53 reasoned it was fine because the stub's job "sets issues: write explicitly and the stub
grants exactly that". That is the trap: a job-level permissions block replaces the
workflow-level one, so that job has no contents to hand down and the callee's contents: read
is an elevation. The job needs issues: write and nothing else — there is no checkout.

Third time for the same two rules (#46, #53, here), and the failure is a startup validation on the
caller: no check run, actionlint exits 0, and an issues:-only workflow can sit broken
indefinitely. So the detector ships with the fix instead of after it.

The check

scripts/check-reusable-permissions.sh plus 11 fixtures, run in CI against this repository. It
reads both kinds of caller — in-repo uses: ./… jobs and the README stubs consumers copy. An
earlier version read only the README and passed #46's defect.

Two things it needed:

test-actions.yml only triggered on two named workflow files, so a change to a reusable
workflow or a README stub could skip this and everything else there. Now
.github/workflows/** and README.md.
It runs under nix develop: yq is not on the runner image, jq is.

Testing

Red with main's issues-add-labels.yaml restored, green otherwise, same tree. Also catches
#46's defect reconstructed, and both issues-* workflows at bd72053 (v3.0.2). Fixtures 11/11;
shellcheck and shfmt clean.

Not seen live — the startup failure only shows once a consumer pins a commit containing this.

Notes for reviewers

Needs v3.0.3 alongside fix(issues-add-to-project): request no token permissions #53 to reach consumers.
ARC and apiserver-kit still carry inline copies with the same permission shape: correct
standalone, broken as soon as those repos become callers (#499, #132).

Checklist

Tests added/updated, or confirmed that no tests are required
No breaking changes, or upgrade path documented above
Readable commit history (squashed and cleaned up as desired)
AI code review considered and comments resolved

Summary by CodeRabbit

Chores
- Workflow changes and README updates are now included in automated checks.
- Automated checks verify that reusable workflows receive the permissions they require, helping catch permission issues before changes are merged.
- The issue-labeling workflow now uses more restricted permissions.
Tests
- Added coverage for permission inheritance, overrides, empty or insufficient grants, and workflow parsing errors.

coderabbitai · 2026-10-13T14:11:37Z

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

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📒 Files selected for processing (2)

scripts/check-reusable-permissions.sh
scripts/test-check-reusable-permissions.sh

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📝 Walkthrough

The pull request adds a script that checks permission requests in local reusable workflows against caller grants. It adds test coverage and runs the checks in CI. It also changes the issue-label workflow’s workflow-level permissions.

Changes: Reusable workflow permissions

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Permission checker and test coverage `scripts/check-reusable-permissions.sh`, `scripts/test-check-reusable-permissions.sh`	The checker reads local workflows and README YAML stubs, compares permission requests with caller grants, and reports warnings or failures. Tests cover permission inheritance, job-level overrides, empty grants, wildcard grants, caller identification, and parse errors.
CI integration and workflow permissions `.github/workflows/test-actions.yml`, `.github/workflows/issues-add-labels.yaml`	The test workflow covers all workflow files and `README.md`, then runs the permission tests and repository check. The issue-label workflow sets workflow-level permissions to `{}` and retains job-level `issues: write`.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant GitHubActions
  participant PermissionTest
  participant PermissionChecker
  participant WorkflowFiles
  participant READMEStubs
  GitHubActions->>PermissionTest: Run permission checker fixtures
  PermissionTest->>PermissionChecker: Check temporary fixtures
  PermissionChecker-->>PermissionTest: Return status and report
  GitHubActions->>PermissionChecker: Check repository permissions
  PermissionChecker->>WorkflowFiles: Read local workflow definitions
  PermissionChecker->>READMEStubs: Read caller YAML stubs
  PermissionChecker-->>GitHubActions: Return permission report and status

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to e64de

The change is mergeable with a bounded follow-up: a future local-path README example could be skipped if its YAML is malformed, allowing the permission check to pass without examining it.

Pre-merge checks · 4 · 1

Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage		Docstring coverage is 66.67% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 6 functions across 2 files.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check		The title clearly and concisely identifies the main change: fixing reusable workflow permissions.
Description check		The description covers the change, motivation, implementation, testing, reviewer notes, and checklist. The issue-closing reference is empty, but the description is otherwise complete and relevant.

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Actionable comments posted: 3

🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @scripts/check-reusable-permissions.sh:
- Around line 101-104: Restrict workflow caller discovery in the jq `select`
filter to paths rooted in this repository, accepting `./.github/workflows/…` or
this repository’s qualified path before extracting the callee filename. Do not
select external `owner/other-repo/.github/workflows/…` references, so their
grants are not compared against local workflows.
- Around line 92-93: Update the permission comparison around strongest to
normalize read-all and write-all into comparable permission maps before reading
entries, for both callee requests and caller workflow/job grants. Add fixtures
covering scalar callee requests and scalar caller grants.
- Around line 52-54: Update both YAML-loading loops that pipe yq output into jq
to report the workflow or README stub when parsing fails and exit the check
unsuccessfully. Remove error suppression and `|| true`, and ensure failures from
either command in each pipeline are detected rather than silently skipping the
caller.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e6fa735 and 017f9d2.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

.github/workflows/issues-add-labels.yaml
.github/workflows/test-actions.yml
scripts/check-reusable-permissions.sh
scripts/test-check-reusable-permissions.sh

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Same defect as #53. The README stub's calling job declares `issues: write`, and a job-level block replaces the workflow-level one rather than merging, so the caller's job has no `contents` to hand down. The job needs issues:write and nothing else — there is no checkout — so declare that at the workflow level too.

Three fixes now (#46, #53, and the sibling of #53) have been the same two rules: a called workflow cannot elevate beyond the calling job, and a job-level `permissions:` block replaces the workflow-level one instead of merging. The failure is a startup validation on the caller, so it creates no check run and actionlint exits 0 on it. The check reads both kinds of caller — in-repo `uses: ./...` jobs and the README stubs consumers copy — because covering only one would have missed #46 and only the other would miss every consumer. Validated against three known states: the reconstructed #46 defect, v3.0.2 where both issues-* workflows were wrong, and this branch where none are. test-actions.yml also only triggered on two named workflow files, so a permissions change in a reusable workflow or a README stub could ship without this, or anything else here, running.

AlexHardAtWork changed the title ~~Fix/reusable workflow permissions~~ fix: reusable workflow permissions Oct 13, 2026

coderabbitai Bot reviewed Oct 13, 2026

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AlexHardAtWork added 2 commits October 13, 2026 16:29

AlexHardAtWork force-pushed the fix/reusable-workflow-permissions branch from 017f9d2 to e64de5a Compare October 13, 2026 14:29

cbrgm mentioned this pull request Oct 14, 2026

chore: move to dev-kit v3.0.3 opendefensecloud/solution-arsenal#867

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cbrgm approved these changes Oct 14, 2026

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AlexHardAtWork merged commit e0b0b25 into main Oct 14, 2026
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AlexHardAtWork deleted the fix/reusable-workflow-permissions branch October 14, 2026 11:00

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fix: reusable workflow permissions - #54

fix: reusable workflow permissions#54
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