How to use Forgejo Actions compatible syntax with Act? (jobs.<job_id>.uses)

[tertek]

Managed Hosting Forgejo with Forgejo Runner that processes my actions.
I have a working action that uses https://github.com/appleboy/ssh-action like defined in the Official Forgejo Docs:

      - name: Execute remote deployment script via SSH
        uses: https://github.com/appleboy/ssh-action@v1.2.5
       ...

However, the input string is rejected by Act:

act: (running locally for testing)Error: Expected format {org}/{repo}[/path]@ref. Actual 'https://github.com/appleboy/ssh-action@v1.2.5' Input string was not in a correct format

Unfortunately, I have to use two different actions to test locally with Act. It would be nice if there is a way to fix this (without writing too much conditional logic into the action and bloat it)

A workaround would be to mirror the GH repo to my Forgejo and the use that in my action in the compatible format for both. However, this requires additional authentication and is not what I want here.

[joshwebtimestwo]

I reproduced that action-reference error with Act 0.2.89. Forgejo accepts the full URL, but Act expects the GitHub shorthand appleboy/ssh-action@v1.2.5.

For managed Forgejo, you can keep the checked-in workflow unchanged and generate a disposable local copy for Act. For the unquoted uses: lines in your example:

mkdir -p .act-workflows
sed 's#uses: https://github.com/#uses: #' \
  .forgejo/workflows/deploy.yml > .act-workflows/deploy.yml
act -W .act-workflows/deploy.yml

Replace deploy.yml with your filename and keep .act-workflows generated/ignored. This still points Act at the same public GitHub action; it needs neither a mirror nor conditional steps in the actual workflow. It only translates GitHub URLs, not actions hosted elsewhere.

I wouldn't remove the hostname from the Forgejo version without checking the host's configuration: Forgejo prefixes shorthand actions with its instance-wide DEFAULT_ACTIONS_URL, which is not necessarily GitHub. If the hosting provider already sets that to GitHub, the shorthand itself can serve both runners.

AI-assisted; I tested the generated YAML and verified that Act gets past the original reference-parser error and resolves the GitHub action. I did not test an SSH deployment.

[tertek]

Thank you. This works!

[joshwebtimestwo]

No problem. I thought it would, Happy I could help! 😄