linera-io/linera-protocol · error

GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not a valid number: {pr_string}

Error message

GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not a valid number: {pr_string}

What it means

Thrown by GithubContext::from_env when linera-summary runs in CI mode (is_local=false). The tool reads the GITHUB_PR_NUMBER environment variable and parses it with str::parse::<u64>(); the parse itself only fails when the variable exists but its value is not a bare decimal number. The message interpolates the offending value, so the raw string appears in the error.

Source

Thrown at linera-summary/src/github.rs:134

                pr_number.ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("pr_number is None"))?,
            )
        } else {
            let pr_string = env_pr_number.map_err(|_| {
                anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not set! This must be run from within CI")
            })?;
            (
                env_pr_commit_hash.map_err(|_| {
                    anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_COMMIT_HASH is not set! This must be run from within CI")
                })?,
                env_pr_branch.map_err(|_| {
                    anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_BRANCH is not set! This must be run from within CI")
                })?,
                env_base_branch.map_err(|_| {
                    anyhow!("GITHUB_BASE_BRANCH is not set! This must be run from within CI")
                })?,
                pr_string
                    .parse()
                    .map_err(|_| anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not a valid number: {pr_string}"))?,
            )
        };

        Ok(Self {
            repository: GithubRepository::from_env(is_local)?,
            pr_commit_hash,
            pr_branch,
            base_branch,
            pr_number,
        })
    }
}

/// A GitHub client bound to a PR context, used to query workflow runs/jobs and post comments.
pub struct Github {
    octocrab: Octocrab,
    context: GithubContext,
    is_local: bool,

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c226ddcb3)

Solutions

1. Check the exact value printed in the message; strip quotes, whitespace and CR/LF: GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=$(echo "$GITHUB_PR_NUMBER" | tr -d '[:space:]')
2. In GitHub Actions, set it from the numeric event field: env: GITHUB_PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.number }}
3. If running locally, invoke the tool in local mode (is_local=true / --local) so it derives context from git instead of env vars, passing the PR number explicitly
4. Never assign a git ref like refs/pull/N/merge; use only the bare integer N

Example fix

# before (workflow yaml)
env:
  GITHUB_PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.ref }}   # "refs/pull/123/merge" -> parse fails

# after
env:
  GITHUB_PR_NUMBER: ${{ github.event.number }}

// Rust: validate before constructing the Github client
fn pr_number_from_env() -> anyhow::Result<u64> {
    let raw = std::env::var("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER")
        .map_err(|_| anyhow::anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER is not set"))?;
    let trimmed = raw.trim();
    trimmed.parse::<u64>().map_err(|_| {
        anyhow::anyhow!("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER={raw:?} is not a PR number")
    })
}

match Github::new(false, None) {
    Ok(gh) => gh,
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("GITHUB_PR_NUMBER") => {
        eprintln!("CI env incomplete: {e}"); return Ok(());
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running the linera-summary binary outside GitHub Actions CI but with GITHUB_PR_NUMBER set to something non-numeric (e.g. "true", "refs/pull/123/merge", an empty string, or a value with whitespace/newline); in CI, exporting the PR from the wrong context expression such as github.ref instead of github.event.number.

Common situations: Manually replaying a CI run locally and copying GitHub payload JSON where number fields arrive as strings with quotes or CR/LF; workflow templates that pass "${{ github.head_ref }}" by mistake; a step that does `echo GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=123 #comment` on Windows (trailing \r).

Related errors

• GITHUB_TOKEN is not set! This must be run from within CI
• Invalid address value: {s}
• HEAD is not on a branch - it may be detached
• Invalid blob ID: {s}
• Invalid parsing of GenericApplicationId

AI-assisted analysis of linera-io/linera-protocol@6c226ddcb3 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d946b7e58b1cebf7. Report an issue: GitHub.