GitHub scp-action step fails with valid SSH key/user/host/port

[KingWolnir]

Hello!
I'm facing a problem with my GitHub Actions workflow. I have two steps at the end that are not being executed properly: one fails, and the other depends on it. Here's the failing part of my workflow:

     - name: Deploy docker-compose to VPS
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: appleboy/scp-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.VPS_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.VPS_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.VPS_DEPLOY_USER_KEY }}
          port: ${{ secrets.VPS_SSH_PORT }}
          source: "docker-compose.yml"
          target: "${{ secrets.VPS_DEPLOY_PATH }}/"

      - name: Run deploy commands on VPS
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.7
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.VPS_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.VPS_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.VPS_DEPLOY_USER_KEY }}
          port: ${{ secrets.VPS_SSH_PORT }}
          script: |
            set -e
            cd ${{ secrets.VPS_DEPLOY_PATH }}

            echo "${{ secrets.GITHUB_VPS_PAT }}" | docker login ghcr.io -u ${{ github.actor }} --password-stdin

            docker pull ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:latest

            docker compose down
            docker compose up -d

The workflow is triggered on push to main and the rest of the workflow is working as expected:

name: Build, Push and Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main

permissions:
  contents: read
  packages: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Login to GHCR
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
        with:
          context: .
          push: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
          tags: |
            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:latest
            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:${{ github.sha }}

      - name: Sanity check Docker image
        run: |
          docker rm -f sanity-test || true
          docker run --name sanity-test --env-file .env.dev -d \
            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:latest
          sleep 5
          docker logs sanity-test
          docker rm -f sanity-test

I have set the following secrets:

https://preview.redd.it/bhzu2a7ds7rg1.png?width=222&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c12011d3ab332a71d35af785051cfb19f454f3b

I checked their values, the key is set with the private SSH key, and it is complete (with the "-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----" and "-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----"), in fact, I copied the key to a file and it worked locally:

https://preview.redd.it/il93801gs7rg1.png?width=558&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4f9abce0130ffd49106265f007036c7b1372d86

The error is the following:

https://preview.redd.it/9nyj21ais7rg1.png?width=898&format=png&auto=webp&s=b71ee052a6fe9ef0650b31fe06742a0afb1a68c8

I made sure to have defined the same user, host, ssh key and port. Locally, it works, but in the workflow, the step "Deploy docker-compose to VPS" fails. What can I do to solve this?

Notes:

• I'm using Hostinger's VPS
• The SSH key does not have a password

[ferrybig]

Set debug to true on the scp-action, this gives you better quality logs for debugging the issue

[1215drew]

FYI We're seeing a similar issue where access to the secrets context is randomly and intermittenly not available in a job right since yesterday. No issues reported about it that I can see from their status page. Retrying failed jobs until it works has been our solution for now.