googleapis / googleapis/release-please-action

Workflows don't run when using `secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN`, request to support SSH Deploy Key

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#1,179 0 comments 1 reaction 1 assignee View on GitHub

@chingor13 is already working on this.

Since Jan 23, 2026.

priority: p3 type: feature request
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Description

**Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.**
When the PR is created, workflows that normally would run in `on: pull_request` don't run. This is expected behavior when using `{{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}`. A way to get around this when making commits is with a deploy key with write access.

**Describe the solution you'd like**
Add another parameter for the SSH key, if present, use that to make the commit (instead of the API).

Given that release-please does multiple things, including things that _need_ a token, it seems this could be a backwards compatible change.

**Describe alternatives you've considered**
Create a PAT, but this is a brittle solution, as it is tied to a user, instead of the repo itself.

**Additional context**
n/a

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