nektos/act · error

❌ Error in continue-on-error-expression: "continue-on-err

Error message

  ❌  Error in continue-on-error-expression: "continue-on-error: %s" (%s)

What it means

A step's `continue-on-error:` value could not be evaluated as a boolean expression. isContinueOnError skips empty values but runs anything else through EvalBool with DefaultStatusCheckNone; non-boolean results or evaluation errors (bad syntax, unknown context) produce this error.

Source

Thrown at pkg/runner/step.go:325

	runStep, err := EvalBool(ctx, rc.NewStepExpressionEvaluatorExt(ctx, step, stage == stepStageMain), expr, defaultStatusCheck)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("  \u274C  Error in if-expression: \"if: %s\" (%s)", expr, err)
	}

	return runStep, nil
}

func isContinueOnError(ctx context.Context, expr string, step step, _ stepStage) (bool, error) {
	// https://github.com/github/docs/blob/3ae84420bd10997bb5f35f629ebb7160fe776eae/content/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions.md?plain=true#L962
	if len(strings.TrimSpace(expr)) == 0 {
		return false, nil
	}

	rc := step.getRunContext()

	continueOnError, err := EvalBool(ctx, rc.NewStepExpressionEvaluator(ctx, step), expr, exprparser.DefaultStatusCheckNone)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("  \u274C  Error in continue-on-error-expression: \"continue-on-error: %s\" (%s)", expr, err)
	}

	return continueOnError, nil
}

func mergeIntoMap(step step, target *map[string]string, maps ...map[string]string) {
	if rc := step.getRunContext(); rc != nil && rc.JobContainer != nil && rc.JobContainer.IsEnvironmentCaseInsensitive() {
		mergeIntoMapCaseInsensitive(*target, maps...)
	} else {
		mergeIntoMapCaseSensitive(*target, maps...)
	}
}

func mergeIntoMapCaseSensitive(target map[string]string, maps ...map[string]string) {
	for _, m := range maps {
		for k, v := range m {
			target[k] = v
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4f41128141)

Solutions

1. Make the expression strictly boolean: compare strings explicitly (`== 'true'`) instead of relying on truthiness of arbitrary strings.
2. Verify function names and context availability at step scope.
3. Test by temporarily replacing the expression with a literal true/false to confirm the rest of the step works.

Example fix

# before
continue-on-error: ${{ steps.setup.outputs.retrying }}   # 'yes' is not boolean
# after
continue-on-error: ${{ steps.setup.outputs.retrying == 'yes' }}

# ensure continue-on-error is boolean-valued: prefer
#   continue-on-error: ${{ expr == 'value' }}
# never a bare non-boolean output reference

When it happens

Trigger: `continue-on-error: ${{ ... }}` where the expression returns a non-boolean (string/number) that the evaluator refuses, references undefined contexts, or contains a syntax error; also plain strings that aren't valid expressions after implicit conversion rules.

Common situations: Setting `continue-on-error: ${{ steps.check.outputs.retry }}` where output is 'yes'/'no' instead of 'true'/'false'; complex ternary expressions with typos; referencing contexts not available at that point in evaluation.

Related errors

• ❌ Error in if-expression: "if: %s" (%s)
• ❌ Error in if-expression: "if: %s" (%s)
• Invalid run/uses syntax for job:%s step:%+v
• --pid: invalid PID mode
• invalid storage option

AI-assisted analysis of nektos/act@4f41128141 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6923d2b95e523e52. Report an issue: GitHub.