ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL / ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN and friends aren't documented

[jsoref]

I'd love to at least know how to pass the GitHub hosted variables to act so that I can perform passthrough action stuffs.

I tried that here:
https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/act-use-spell-check-this/actions/runs/10801275723/workflow#L95-L96

But that clearly didn't work as seen in:
https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/act-use-spell-check-this/actions/runs/10801275723/job/29961096172#step:11:9536

[Test/Standalone                     ]   ❗  ::error::Unable to get the ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN env variable

[ChristopherHX]

You didn't know about actions/runner ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL and ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN are not set in steps with run key and only have a value in nodejs&docker actions?

Now, why is act different here?, that's a different topic.

[jsoref]

Err. So, do I need to do something like:

act --env MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL="$ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL" --env MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN="$ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN"

and then:

steps:
 ...
 - name: use actions runtime stuff
   env:
     ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL: ${{ env.MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL }}
     ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN: ${{ env.MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN }}
   ...

[jsoref]

Note: All I want is docs explaining how I, an "end user", can make this work. That's why this is in the docs repo and not in the act repo with a subject of "act is doing this wrong".

[ChristopherHX]

I'm probably too far away from an "end user", here a technical instruction to do it.
Someone need to write a "end user" friendly alternative

1. ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL and ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN are not available in run steps like inline scripts for GitHub Hosted Runners
2. To expose them use an action like actions/github-script
   • where I usually set input github-token to none when I don't need octokit
   • the script parameter can export the value via core.setOutput('ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL', process.env.ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL); and do the same for the other env as well
3. assign the output to the --env flag of act in the run script
4. I don't like overrides of step 3
   • because that's a behavior defect compared to GitHub Actions, where it is impossible to override them via env within workflow
   • a new cli flag to override protected env variables (yes I made GITHUB_OUTPUT protected in act like on GitHub Hosted runners, because my github-act-runner should be somewhat trustworthy) is more prefered in my opinon

Err. So, do I need to do something like:

act --env MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL="$ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL" --env MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN="$ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN"

and then:

steps:
 ...
 - name: use actions runtime stuff
   env:
     ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL: ${{ env.MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL }}
     ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN: ${{ env.MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN }}
   ...

Err 500, did you try to diagnose this with act in act?

act in Runner.Server is a possible combo to diagnose the missing var, because act and actions/runner do have a lot of different behavior.

[jsoref]

I guess I'm running act in Runner.Server.

With your suggestion, it works!
https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/act-use-spell-check-this/actions/runs/10819571929

Running nektos/act inside GitHub runners (Runner.Server) and allowing access to the GitHub Artifact APIs:

Two steps are recommended, one to get the variables (which must not be a run: step) and one to use them.

For example:

    steps:
      # ... any steps necessary to set up act ...
      - name: get actions environment variables
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        id: action-variables
        with:
          script: |
            core.setOutput('ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL', process.env.ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL);
            core.setOutput('ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL', process.env.ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL);
            core.setOutput('ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN', process.env.ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN);
      - name: run act
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
          MY_ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL: ${{ steps.action-variables.outputs.ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL }}
          MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL: ${{ steps.action-variables.outputs.ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL }}
          MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN: ${{ steps.action-variables.outputs.ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN }}
        run: |
            act \
            -s GH_TOKEN="$GH_TOKEN" \
            --env ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL="$MY_ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL" \
            --env ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL="$MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL" \
            --env ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN="$MY_ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN" \