GitHub Actions · GitHub Packages · Checked November 3, 2026

GitHub Actions: ghcr.io push "denied: permission_denied: write_package"

The registry accepted the token and then refused to write to that package. A successful login says nothing about the package. There are two questions, in this order: does the job's token have packages: write, and is this repository allowed to write to a package that already exists?

What it looks like

Login Succeeded!
...
ERROR: failed to build: failed to solve: failed to push ghcr.io/octo-org/web:1.4.0: denied: permission_denied: write_package

That is docker/build-push-action; docker push and helm push end the same way (mcp-context-forge #7074). For a package of an organization the message can instead be denied: installation not allowed to Write organization package. In October reports that form came mostly from a token with no write at all, and write_package mostly from a package that refused the repository, but both turn up for both causes, so check in the same order.

1. The job's token has no packages: write

• The restricted default. "By default, when you create a new repository in your personal account, GITHUB_TOKEN only has read access for the contents and packages scopes", and organizations can set the same. After one organization switched, every workflow without a permissions block lost the push (restate-cloud-tunnel-client #28).
• A permissions block that leaves packages out sets it to none. A workflow-level contents: read did that in books_downloader (#70).
• A reusable workflow cannot get more than its caller grants, so both files need it (restate-cloud-tunnel-client #28).
• A pull request from a fork gets a read-only token, and the permissions key cannot raise it. Build those without pushing (shutterbase #128).

jobs:
  image:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
    steps:
      - uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - uses: docker/build-push-action@v7
        with:
          push: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
          tags: ghcr.io/octo-org/web:${{ github.sha }}

2. The package exists, and this repository may not write to it

With packages: write already set, the package is the problem; godot-mcp had both, logged in with GITHUB_TOKEN, and was refused only at the push (godot-mcp #706). The Container registry documentation says the GITHUB_TOKEN "will not have permission to push the package if you have previously pushed a package to the same namespace, but have not connected the package to the repository". Open the package's settings page and look at "Manage Actions access" and the linked repository. The usual stories:

• Someone pushed it first from a laptop or with a personal token. A fork's packages created that way refused the fork's own GITHUB_TOKEN (armada-rp6 #59).
• Another repository published it first. ghcr.io/unipept/unipept-web belonged to unipept/docker-images, so the v6.5.5 release of unipept/unipept failed (unipept #1894). A monorepo that replaced split repositories hit it on eight images at once (myota #53).
• The repository was renamed or rebuilt, and the package still belongs to the old one (iozy #14).
• The repository was transferred to another account. For the Container registry the link is removed, and "Any codespaces or GitHub Actions workflows associated with the repository will lose access to the package."
• The organization turned off "Inherit access from source repository" for new packages, so a new package does not give the linked repository's workflows access.

The ways out

• Give the repository access. On the package's settings page, under "Manage Actions access", use Add Repository and give it the Write role. You need admin on the package. This keeps the name, as myota did.
• Push under a name nobody owns yet. A package published from a workflow with GITHUB_TOKEN is linked to that repository automatically, which is how unipept and iozy fixed it. Anything that pulls the old name has to follow.
• For a name that is new but will first be pushed from elsewhere, add the org.opencontainers.image.source label with this repository's URL. The package inherits the repository's access only if the label is there before the first publish; connecting an existing package from its settings keeps its current permissions unless you choose to inherit.
• Use a personal access token with write:packages as a secret, as adcombi/ruby-ci-image did (#3). It works for any package that person can write, but the documentation recommends GITHUB_TOKEN for this registry, the token belongs to one person, and secrets do not reach fork pull requests either.

Telling it apart

• "unauthorized: unauthenticated: User cannot be authenticated with the token provided": the token was not accepted at all, so the token is empty, wrong or expired.
• "repository name must be lowercase": the image name has a capital letter, often from ${{ github.repository }} with a mixed-case owner.
• A git push refused with "Permission to ... denied to github-actions[bot]" is the same kind of missing write, for contents (git push and github-actions[bot]).

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