Octokit: PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path} status: 404 - github-api

Question

I am working on a GitHub workflow that updates content in another repo.
workflow:
issues:
types: [opened, reopened]
jobs:
forking:
name: 'Test'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v1
- name: Forking
uses: ./.github/actions/fork
env:
jump2header_token: ${{ secrets.JUMP2HEADER_TOKEN }}
# - name: Sleep for 30 seconds
# uses: jakejarvis/wait-action#master
# with:
# time: '30s'
- name: Update file
uses: ./.github/actions/update_file
env:
jump2header_token: ${{ secrets.JUMP2HEADER_TOKEN } # "x-oauth-scopes": "repo"
import { context, getOctokit } from "#actions/github";
const octokit = getOctokit(process.env.jump2header_token || "");
const response = await octokit.request(
`PUT /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path}`,
{
owner,
repo,
path: file,
message: generateCommitMessage(),
content,
sha,
branch,
}
);
This is the error that I am getting in the actions workflow:
{
"name": "HttpError",
"status": 404,
"headers": {
"access-control-allow-origin": "*",
"access-control-expose-headers": "ETag, Link, Location, Retry-After, X-GitHub-OTP, X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Used, X-RateLimit-Reset, X-OAuth-Scopes, X-Accepted-OAuth-Scopes, X-Poll-Interval, X-GitHub-Media-Type, Deprecation, Sunset",
"connection": "close",
"content-encoding": "gzip",
"content-security-policy": "default-src 'none'",
"content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8",
"date": "Sun, 13 Dec 2020 18:02:20 GMT",
"referrer-policy": "origin-when-cross-origin, strict-origin-when-cross-origin",
"server": "GitHub.com",
"status": "404 Not Found",
"strict-transport-security": "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains; preload",
"transfer-encoding": "chunked",
"vary": "Accept-Encoding, Accept, X-Requested-With",
"x-accepted-oauth-scopes": "",
"x-content-type-options": "nosniff",
"x-frame-options": "deny",
"x-github-media-type": "github.v3; format=json",
"x-github-request-id": "0403:379D:747844:12E9DA7:5FD6572B",
"x-oauth-scopes": "repo",
"x-ratelimit-limit": "5000",
"x-ratelimit-remaining": "4994",
"x-ratelimit-reset": "1607885212",
"x-ratelimit-used": "6",
"x-xss-protection": "1; mode=block"
},
"request": {
"method": "PUT",
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/strdr4605/TMPS/contents/README.md",
"headers": {
"accept": "application/vnd.github.v3+json",
"user-agent": "octokit-core.js/3.2.4 Node.js/12.13.1 (linux; x64)",
"authorization": "token [REDACTED]",
"content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8"
},
"body": "{\"message\":\"docs: add links to top with jump2header\",\"content\":\"IyBUTVBTCg==\",\"sha\":\"e734b6a1805da1b08294715d5ede2761fd4807e5\",\"branch\":\"jump2header\"}",
...
}
Why 404 error if the repo exists: https://api.github.com/repos/strdr4605/TMPS/contents/README.md?
Am I doing the update right?

Answer 1

A 404 generally means an authentication issue: for security reason, the API pretends there is no such resource (even if it exists) when it detects you are not allowed to access/update it.
The action-update-file action should require a GitHub token for authentication
Example:
name: Resources
on: repository_dispatch
jobs:
resources:
name: Update resources
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v1
- uses: actions/setup-node#v1
- name: Fetch resources
run: ./scripts/fetch-resources.sh
- name: Update resources
uses: test-room-7/action-update-file#v1
with:
file-path: path/to/file
commit-msg: Update resources
github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}