context.github.repos.getContent not working on repo fork

Bug Report

Current Behavior I’m trying to get file content from a pull request. Some pull request are related to new branches directly created in the repository, others are related to a branch on a fork originated from the repository. In the first case I successfully get the file content while in the second I get this failure

ERROR	 (HttpError): Not Found
    HttpError: Not Found
        at /Users/andreatortosa/pcecmd/commentcmd/node_modules/@octokit/request/dist-node/index.js:66:23
        at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
        at async sendRequestWithRetries (/Users/andreatortosa/pcecmd/commentcmd/node_modules/@octokit/auth-app/dist-node/index.js:440:12)
        at async Job.doExecute (/Users/andreatortosa/pcecmd/commentcmd/node_modules/bottleneck/light.js:405:18)
status: 404
headers: {
    access-control-allow-origin: "*"
    access-control-expose-headers: "ETag, Link, Location, Retry-After, X-GitHub-OTP, X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset, X-OAuth-Scopes, X-Accepted-OAuth-Scopes, X-Poll-Interval, X-GitHub-Media-Type, Deprecation, Sunset"
    connection: "close"
    content-encoding: "gzip"
    content-security-policy: "default-src 'none'"
    content-type: "application/json; charset=utf-8"
    date: "Fri, 13 Nov 2020 07:53:13 GMT"
    referrer-policy: "origin-when-cross-origin, strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
    server: "openresty"
    status: "404 Not Found"
    strict-transport-security: "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains"
    transfer-encoding: "chunked"
    x-content-type-options: "nosniff"
    x-frame-options: "deny"
    x-github-enterprise-version: "2.21.7"
    x-github-media-type: "github.v3; format=json"
    x-github-request-id: "23e1824a-1664-49b6-ba39-bf8a323de6cf"
    x-ratelimit-limit: "5000"
    x-ratelimit-remaining: "4983"
    x-ratelimit-reset: "1605257458"
    x-runtime-rack: "0.057801"
    x-xss-protection: "1; mode=block"
}
request: {
    method: "GET"
    url: "https://github.XXX.com/api/v3/repos/XXXXX/XXXXX/contents/XXXXXjson?ref=XXXXX"
    headers: {
      "accept": "application/vnd.github.v3+json",
      "user-agent": "probot/10.10.1 octokit-core.js/3.2.1 Node.js/13.10.1 (darwin; x64)",
      "authorization": "token [REDACTED]"
    }
    request: {}
}

Please notice the request is perfectly built and that I m able to run the same request with a curl

    const repoParamsGet = context.repo({owner: prHead[0], repo: repositoryName, path: jsonFiles[0], ref: prHead[1]})
      const getContentResult = await context.github.repos.getContent(
        repoParamsGet
      ).then(result => {
        // content will be base64 encoded
        return [result.data.sha, Buffer.from(result.data.content, 'base64').toString()]
      })
      logger.info('File sha is ' + getContentResult[0] + ' and its content is ' + getContentResult[1])

Expected behavior/code Being able to get the file content also from a branch of forked repository

Environment

• Probot version(s): 10.9.3 as in package.json
• Node/npm version: node v13.10.1, npm 6.14.8
• OS: MacOS Catalina 10.15.7

Possible Solution

Additional context/Screenshots Add any other context about the problem here. If applicable, add screenshots to help explain.

[gr2m]

I need to modify it and then update it back but the update file content api does not accept ref so I cannot find a way to do it

I’m afraid that is not possible with apps as far as I know. Access for apps are limited to installations, and an app installation is not automatically expanded to forks.

is there a way to exploit a personal access token in probot ?

you can simply set your personal access token as an environment variable. If the account of the PAT is permitted access to the fork, then you can do the following

1. Import ProbotOctokit: const { ProbotOctokit } = require("probot")
2. Instantiate a new octokit instance authenticated using your token: const octokit = new ProbotOctokit({ auth: process.env.MY_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN

[chris-schra]

stumbled upon the very same issue, created an PR to fix the docs: #1637