What causes "GITHUB_SHA environment variable is not set" in denoland/deno?

Forward GITHUB_SHA (and the rest of the GITHUB_*/RUNNER_* set) into the publish step

denoland/deno · error · anyhow::Error

GITHUB_SHA environment variable is not set

Error message

GITHUB_SHA environment variable is not set

What it means

Provenance predicate construction reads `GITHUB_SHA` (the commit being built) and throws this message when it is unset. It is one of several sequential required-variable reads; the first missing one aborts. On real runners it is always present, so this signals a stripped or simulated Actions environment.

Source

Thrown at cli/tools/publish/provenance.rs:185

    let rel_ref = std::env::var("GITHUB_WORKFLOW_REF")
      .unwrap_or_default()
      .replace(&format!("{}/", &repo), "");

    let (workflow_path, workflow_ref) = if let Some(delimn) = rel_ref.find('@')
    {
      let (path, ref_) = rel_ref.split_at(delimn);
      (path, &ref_[1..])
    } else {
      (rel_ref.as_str(), "")
    };

    let server_url = std::env::var("GITHUB_SERVER_URL").map_err(|_| {
      anyhow!("GITHUB_SERVER_URL environment variable is not set")
    })?;
    let github_ref = std::env::var("GITHUB_REF")
      .map_err(|_| anyhow!("GITHUB_REF environment variable is not set"))?;
    let github_sha = std::env::var("GITHUB_SHA")
      .map_err(|_| anyhow!("GITHUB_SHA environment variable is not set"))?;
    let runner_env = std::env::var("RUNNER_ENVIRONMENT").map_err(|_| {
      anyhow!("RUNNER_ENVIRONMENT environment variable is not set")
    })?;
    let run_id = std::env::var("GITHUB_RUN_ID")
      .map_err(|_| anyhow!("GITHUB_RUN_ID environment variable is not set"))?;
    let run_attempt = std::env::var("GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT").map_err(|_| {
      anyhow!("GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT environment variable is not set")
    })?;

    Ok(Self {
      build_definition: BuildDefinition {
        build_type: GITHUB_BUILD_TYPE,
        external_parameters: ExternalParameters {
          workflow: GhaWorkflow {
            ref_: workflow_ref.to_string(),
            repository: format!("{}/{}", server_url, &repo),
            path: workflow_path.to_string(),
          },

View on GitHub (pinned to 89f33cbef2)

Solutions

Forward GITHUB_SHA (and the rest of the GITHUB_*/RUNNER_* set) into the publish step
Run the publish step natively on the GitHub Actions runner
Drop `--provenance` outside GitHub Actions

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if [ -z "$GITHUB_SHA" ]; then
  echo "GITHUB_SHA unset — publish --provenance needs the full Actions env" >&2
  exit 1
fi

Prevention

Include GITHUB_SHA in any forwarded env for containerized publish steps
Avoid wrappers that sanitize or whitelist environment variables
Preflight-check all required variables in one loop before invoking deno publish

When it happens

Trigger: `deno publish --provenance` where earlier GITHUB_* variables survived into the process but GITHUB_SHA was filtered out — selective env forwarding or a custom runner setup.

Common situations: Containers or subprocess wrappers forwarding a hand-written subset of runner variables; CI systems emulating GitHub Actions env names.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of denoland/deno@89f33cbef2 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7bb6b45aeb3694e. Report an issue: GitHub.