What causes "GITHUB_REPOSITORY is not set! This must be run from within CI" in linera-io/linera-protocol?

Run inside GitHub Actions, where GITHUB_REPOSITORY is set automatically (format 'owner/repo')

GITHUB_REPOSITORY is not set! This must be run from within C

Error message

GITHUB_REPOSITORY is not set! This must be run from within CI

What it means

GithubRepository::from_env in linera-summary resolves the target repository. In CI mode (is_local = false) it reads GITHUB_REPOSITORY — normally injected by GitHub Actions — and hard-fails when it is unset, since without it the tool cannot know which repo to query.

Source

Thrown at linera-summary/src/github.rs:45

impl GithubRepository {
    /// Returns the repository owner.
    pub fn owner(&self) -> &str {
        &self.owner
    }

    /// Returns the repository name.
    pub fn name(&self) -> &str {
        &self.name
    }

    fn from_env(is_local: bool) -> Result<Self> {
        let env_repository = env::var("GITHUB_REPOSITORY");
        let repository = if is_local {
            env_repository.unwrap_or_else(|_| "linera-io/linera-protocol".to_string())
        } else {
            env_repository.map_err(|_| {
                anyhow!("GITHUB_REPOSITORY is not set! This must be run from within CI")
            })?
        };
        let parts = repository.split('/').collect::<Vec<_>>();
        assert_eq!(parts.len(), 2);
        let owner = parts[0].to_string();
        let name = parts[1].to_string();
        Ok(Self { owner, name })
    }
}

/// The GitHub context for the PR being analyzed: repository, branches, commit and PR number.
pub struct GithubContext {
    repository: GithubRepository,
    pr_commit_hash: String,
    pr_branch: String,
    base_branch: String,
    pr_number: u64,
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c226ddcb3)

Solutions

Run inside GitHub Actions, where GITHUB_REPOSITORY is set automatically (format 'owner/repo')
Or export it manually: GITHUB_REPOSITORY=owner/repo <command>
Or switch the tool to local mode, which falls back to linera-io/linera-protocol when the variable is missing

Example fix

# before
GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=7 linera-summary ...
# after
GITHUB_REPOSITORY=linera-io/linera-protocol GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=7 linera-summary ...

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Rust: verify CI env before constructing
for var in ["GITHUB_REPOSITORY"] {
    if std::env::var(var).is_err() {
        anyhow::bail!("{var} is required in CI mode; export it or run with local mode");
    }
}

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = Github::new(false, None) {
    if e.to_string().contains("GITHUB_REPOSITORY") {
        eprintln!("missing CI env; set GITHUB_REPOSITORY=owner/repo or use --local");
    }
    return Err(e.into());
}

Prevention

Gate CI-mode invocations on a quick env-var presence check
In local testing, use the local mode flag instead of hand-faking CI variables
Keep a checklist of required GITHUB_* variables next to workflow definitions

When it happens

Trigger: Running linera-summary in non-local mode outside a GitHub Actions runner: bare `cargo run`, docker, cron. Any environment lacking GITHUB_REPOSITORY aborts before any API call.

Common situations: Testing the summary tool locally while forgetting the local-mode flag; moving a workflow step to a self-hosted script; CI runners that scrub environment variables.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of linera-io/linera-protocol@6c226ddcb3 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b20c75b1291b970. Report an issue: GitHub.