Azure Pipelines: git push from a pipeline needs Contribute permission

TL;DR

Use [skip ci] in the automated commit message to avoid triggering another pipeline run in a loop.

Steps

1. Grant the build service identity Contribute permission on the repository: Project Settings, Repositories, pick the repo, Permissions, and allow Contribute for the [Project] Build Service user. Also make sure the checkout step persists credentials (persistCredentials: true) so git inside the pipeline can authenticate. Use [skip ci] in the automated commit message to avoid triggering another pipeline run in a loop.
2. - Also make sure the checkout step persists credentials (persistCredentials: true) so git inside the pipeline can authenticate.

When to use

You are seeing this: Grant the build service identity Contribute permission on the repository: Project Settings, Repositories, pick the repo, Permissions, and allow Contribute for the [Project] Build Service user. Use this skill when you run into "Azure Pipelines: git push from a pipeline needs Contribute permission".

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.

Edge cases

• Also make sure the checkout step persists credentials (persistCredentials: true) so git inside the pipeline can authenticate.

Source: Stack Overflow #56541458 (accepted answer, 88 votes): a pipeline commits a version bump and tries git push, which fails with a GenericContribute permission error. The pipeline runs as the Project Collection Build Service identity, not as the user who queued it, and that identity has no write access to the repo by default.

Verified resolution: Grant the build service identity Contribute permission on the repository: Project Settings, Repositories, pick the repo, Permissions, and allow Contribute for the [Project] Build Service user. Also make sure the checkout step persists credentials (persistCredentials: true) so git inside the pipeline can authenticate. Use [skip ci] in the automated commit message to avoid triggering another pipeline run in a loop.

Source URL: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56541458/azure-pipeline-doest-allow-to-git-push-throwing-genericcontribute-permission