How to config git to use PAT token in GitHub actions checkout - github-actions

Question

I need to check out a private repo during a GitHub Actions workflow. I am using the checkout action, and following its README:
I created a service account, i.e. a separate GitHub account just for GitHub Actions workflow.
I created a PAT (Personal Access Token) for the service account, with permission to access the private repo and the current workflow repo.
I created a secret to store the PAT token.
Now, when I just do the following, it does not work:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
token: ${{secrets.MY_TOKEN}}
it seems that I did not config git properly to allow it use the token. My question is: should I or how do I configure git config to use token in the above step?
The private repo is a dependency of the main repo. Both repos are Rust programs, using Cargo, so I am trying to use the same service account to check out the main repo first. Then cargo will check out the private repo.

Answer 1

According to the actions/checkout documentation, you need to add the repository input as well for private repositories:
It should look like the following on your workflow .yml file:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
path: main
- name: Checkout private repo
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
repository: your-private/repo_name
token: ${{ secrets.MY_TOKEN }}
You shouldn't need to configure anything else regarding git
Except if you need a specific path, in that case you need to inform it as input as well:
- name: Checkout private repo
uses: actions/checkout#v2
with:
repository: your-private/repo_name
token: ${{ secrets.MY_TOKEN }}
path: path-to-directory