Depot plus Dependabot: OIDC auth does not work, pass a token

TL;DR

Create a Depot API token, add it as a Dependabot secret named DEPOTTOKEN (via the Dependabot secrets settings, not Actions secrets), and pass it explicitly: token - ${{ secrets.DEPOTTOKEN }} on depot/build-push-action, or on depot/setup-action if you use the CLI directly.

Steps

1. Create a Depot API token, add it as a Dependabot secret named DEPOTTOKEN (via the Dependabot secrets settings, not Actions secrets), and pass it explicitly: token - ${{ secrets.DEPOTTOKEN }} on depot/build-push-action, or on depot/setup-action if you use the CLI directly. Do not assume OIDC just works because it does in your normal workflows; Dependabot is the exception.

When to use

You are seeing this: Dependabot jobs do not support GitHub OIDC, so the usual OIDC-based Depot authentication silently fails there. Use this skill when you run into "Depot plus Dependabot: OIDC auth does not work, pass a token".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: Official docs (Depot Dependabot integration): documents the auth gotcha that trips agents wiring Depot into Dependabot workflows. Dependabot jobs do not support GitHub OIDC, so the usual OIDC-based Depot authentication silently fails there. You must use a token-based approach instead.

Verified resolution: Create a Depot API token, add it as a Dependabot secret named DEPOTTOKEN (via the Dependabot secrets settings, not Actions secrets), and pass it explicitly: token - ${{ secrets.DEPOTTOKEN }} on depot/build-push-action, or on depot/setup-action if you use the CLI directly. Do not assume OIDC just works because it does in your normal workflows; Dependabot is the exception.

Source URL: https://github.com/depot/docs/blob/HEAD/content/github-actions/integrations/dependabot.mdx