remote: fatal error in commit_refs does not explain what's wrong

[jsoref]

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• This was originally reported in [Mar 27, 2023 GitHub Outage] `remote: fatal error in commit_refs` #15823, but that was coopted by end users who ran into this due to the https://www.githubstatus.com/incidents/52z0j6phhnjs outage

Story

I'm debugging a number of flows involving GitHub.

Actual Results

remote: fatal error in commit_refs

Expected results

A human readable error message explaining what's wrong. It should indicate which category of thing is unhappy

• is there branch protection active? (for this repository, there is no branch protection)
• I have no idea

What happened

Here's the end result:
check-spelling-sandbox/PowerToys#6 (comment)

In this case, the workflow did not have its own SSH deploy-key, so it was using the GITHUB_TOKEN auto key.

See log for details.

Search logs
2s
40s
Run check-spelling/check-spelling@prerelease
Run actions/checkout@v3
Syncing repository: check-spelling/PowerToys
Getting Git version info
Temporarily overriding HOME='/home/runner/work/_temp/b0577cf5-9b54-400b-8[1](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235129155?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:1)c8-7e8f221361f6' before making global git config changes
Adding repository directory to the temporary git global config as a safe directory
/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/PowerToys/PowerToys
Deleting the contents of '/home/runner/work/PowerToys/PowerToys'
Initializing the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Fetching the repository
Determining the checkout info
Checking out the ref
/usr/bin/git log -1 --format='%H'
'26f81411cdabe20bc1b56fa89c5b627b02668[19](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235129155?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:19)6'
Run spellchecker=$(echo $spellchecker| perl -pe 's{/$}{}') $spellchecker/unknown-words.sh
From https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys
 * branch                d5[37](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235129155?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:37)90df25525a427a9d50b416e2e898ea486b90 -> FETCH_HEAD
Retrieving expect from .github/actions/spell-check/expect.txt
Retrieving excludes from .github/actions/spell-check/excludes.txt
Downloaded https://raw.githubusercontent.com/check-spelling/check-spelling/dictionary-20200211/dict.txt (to /home/runner/work/_actions/check-spelling/check-spelling/prerelease/words)
(...Extra dictionaries...)
Retrieving allow from .github/actions/spell-check/allow/names.txt
Retrieving patterns from .github/actions/spell-check/patterns.txt
Retrieving advice from .github/actions/spell-check/advice.md
From https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys
 * branch                d53790df25525a427a9d50b416e2e898ea486b90 -> FETCH_HEAD
HEAD is now at 26f81411c Try talk to the bot
HEAD is now at d[537](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235129155?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:537)90df2 remove some entries to test talking to the bot
[detached HEAD b1b0ad3ff] [check-spelling] Applying automated metadata updates
 Author: Josh Soref <jsoref@users.noreply.github.com>
 Date: Fri Apr 29 21:09:23 2022 +0000
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
remote: fatal error in commit_refs        
To https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys.git
 ! [remote rejected]     HEAD -> Settings-preview-text (failure)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys.git'
Error: generated a commit, but the https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys.git rejected the commit.

Maybe this task lost a race with another push?
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

There is a key

You can see that it does have some key, because if it didn't have any key, it'd show something like this:

git push https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys.git HEAD:refs/heads/foo
remote: No anonymous write access.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys.git/'

or

git push check-spelling HEAD:refs/heads/foo                          
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

It works fine with a deploy key

You can see that check-spelling-sandbox/PowerToys#6 (comment) was able to trigger the alternate flow https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true

Search logs
4s
37s
Run check-spelling/check-spelling@prerelease
Run actions/checkout@v3
Syncing repository: check-spelling/PowerToys
Getting Git version info
Temporarily overriding HOME='/home/runner/work/_temp/09[1](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:1)2de08-c69e-4b39-854d-c875dae838d3' before making global git config changes
Adding repository directory to the temporary git global config as a safe directory
/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/PowerToys/PowerToys
Deleting the contents of '/home/runner/work/PowerToys/PowerToys'
Initializing the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Fetching the repository
Determining the checkout info
Checking out the ref
/usr/bin/git log -1 --format='%H'
'26f81411cdabe[20](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:20)bc1b56fa89c5b627b02668196'
Run spellchecker=$(echo $spellchecker| perl -pe 's{/$}{}') $spellchecker/unknown-words.sh
From github.com:check-spelling/PowerToys
 * branch                d53790df25525a427a9d50b[41](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:41)6e2e898ea486b90 -> FETCH_HEAD
Retrieving expect from .github/actions/spell-check/expect.txt
Retrieving excludes from .github/actions/spell-check/excludes.txt
Downloaded https://raw.githubusercontent.com/check-spelling/check-spelling/dictionary-20200211/dict.txt (to /home/runner/work/_actions/check-spelling/check-spelling/prerelease/words)
(...Extra dictionaries...)
Retrieving allow from .github/actions/spell-check/allow/names.txt
Retrieving patterns from .github/actions/spell-check/patterns.txt
Retrieving advice from .github/actions/spell-check/advice.md
From github.com:check-spelling/PowerToys
 * branch                d53790df25525a[42](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:42)7a9d50b416e2e898ea[486](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:486)b90 -> FETCH_HEAD
HEAD is now at 26f81411c Try talk to the bot
HEAD is now at d[537](https://github.com/check-spelling/PowerToys/runs/6235188042?check_suite_focus=true#step:2:537)90df2 remove some entries to test talking to the bot
[detached HEAD 32e28d980] [check-spelling] Applying automated metadata updates
 Author: Josh Soref <jsoref@users.noreply.github.com>
 Date: Fri Apr 29 21:14:51 2022 +0000
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
To github.com:check-spelling/PowerToys.git
   d53790df2..32e28d980  HEAD -> Settings-preview-text
{"data":{"q0":{"minimizedComment":{"isMinimized":true}},"q1":{"minimizedComment":{"isMinimized":true}}}}
# end

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[jsoref]

• Refiled as `remote: fatal error in commit_refs` does not explain what's wrong #126631 to make a bot happy.

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