Support private repositories and private submodules
Author: marcofranssenCreated Jun 23, 2020Updated Sep 13, 2026
Currently the checkout action doesn't work with private repositories using a private submodule.
As a work-around we use the following in our workflow.
steps:
- name: clone main repository
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: clone submodule
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
repository: our-organization/private-repo
path: private-repo
ref: v2
ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SUBMODULE_SSH_KEY }}
persist-credentials: falseIt would be good if the checkout action would support some option to provide a different SSH_KEY for private submodules. E.g. SUBMODULE_SSH_KEY could be an organisation level SSH Key that allows pulling the repos.
Source: actions/checkout