How to run actions to build from a fork?

[guest271314]

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Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Misc

Discussion Details

I forked a respository that has this https://github.com/fails-components/webtransport/blob/master/.github/workflows/publish-packages.yml actions file to build. The third party dependencies need to be updated to work with TOT node. How can I run those build actions from my fork?

[mohitjoer]

Enable GitHub Actions in your fork

Go to your forked repository on GitHub.

Click the “Actions” tab.

You’ll see a message like:
“Workflows aren’t being run on this fork.”

Click “I understand my workflows, go ahead and enable them.”
→ This allows Actions to run for your fork.

Once enabled, you can manually trigger or push commits to run the workflows.

[ARUNAGIRINATHAN-K]

By default, GitHub Actions don’t automatically run on forks for security reasons — especially if the workflow uses secrets (like GITHUB_TOKEN with publish permissions).
To run those build actions in your fork, you have a few options depending on what you need:

1. Enable workflows in your fork manually:

   • Go to your fork’s “Actions” tab.
   • Click “I understand my workflows, enable them.”
   • Then push a new commit or trigger the workflow with a manual workflow_dispatch event.

2. Modify the workflow trigger if needed:
   If the upstream workflow only runs on push or release, add a manual trigger at the top:

   on:
     workflow_dispatch:

   Then you can go to your fork’s Actions tab and click “Run workflow” anytime.

3. If the workflow depends on secrets or publish tokens:
   Those secrets won’t copy over from the upstream repo (they’re not shared across forks).
   You’ll need to add your own tokens or modify the workflow to skip publishing and just build/test, e.g.:

   if: ${{ !github.event.repository.fork }}

   to conditionally skip steps that push packages.

4. To update dependencies for TOT Node:
   Make your dependency updates in a new branch, commit them, and then trigger the workflow in your fork to see if the build succeeds with the updated environment.

[guest271314]

Hmm. The build process of the maintainer doesn't appear to be working fails-components/webtransport#417. I managed to build locally on Debian 12. I'm trying to reproduce that successful build in my fork, using GitHub Actions.

[Aqib121201]

The most likely fix is to enable Actions on your fork and add a manual trigger so you can run a build without relying on upstream events. Forks don’t inherit secrets, and many publish workflows only run on push or release in the source repo, so nothing fires in your fork until you enable workflows and give them a trigger.

Open your fork’s Actions tab, click “Enable workflows,” then run a manual build. If it starts and the build job runs to completion, you’ve confirmed the problem was just disabled workflows and missing triggers.

# .github/workflows/build.yml
name: Build on fork

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 'lts/*'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build

  # Optional: keep publish steps in your fork but skip them
  # when running in a forked repository
  publish:
    if: ${{ !github.event.repository.fork }}
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Publish would happen in the upstream repo"

This workflow adds a manual trigger, builds with your updated dependencies, and skips publishing when the run occurs in a fork.

If the run still doesn’t start or publish steps fail, check whether the original workflow requires secrets (for npm or GitHub Packages). Add your own tokens as repository secrets in your fork, or keep publish disabled and use the build job only.

If this solved your problem, please mark the answer as helpful so others can find it easily.

[guest271314]

Yeah, I'm not following all of the details.