Labels are not being correctly applied to PR using GITHUB_TOKEN

[syaghoubi00]

version:

Run googleapis/release-please-action@v4
Running release-please version: 16.12.0

It seems like release-please thinks it is adding the label successfully, even though no labels are added.

I ran the action with debug log enabled, and at the end of the pr output, "labels":[] is empty, but reporting Successfully added labels autorelease: pending.

Snippet of debug log:

✔ Successfully opened pull request: 2.
✔ Successfully added labels autorelease: pending to issue: 2
##[debug]Node Action run completed with exit code 0
##[debug]Set output releases_created = false
##[debug]Set output paths_released = []
##[debug]Set output prs_created = true
##[debug]Set output pr = {"headBranchName":"release-please--branches--main","baseBranchName":"main","number":2,"title":"chore(main): release 1.0.0","body":":robot: I have created a release *beep* *boop*\n---\n\n\n## 1.0.0 (2025-01-14)\n\n\n### Bug Fixes\n\n* test release ([13765cf](https://github.com/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/commit/13765cf982996c53e86ac13e83115f7843c335ee))\n\n---\nThis PR was generated with [Release Please](https://github.com/googleapis/release-please). See [documentation](https://github.com/googleapis/release-please#release-please).","files":[],"labels":[]}

Possibly related: #1072 - however, adding the repository-projects: read permission did not fix the issue.

config:

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  repository-projects: read
name: release-please

jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          release-type: simple

It might be worth noting that this isn't a problem when using a PAT instead of the GH token.

[syaghoubi00]

#1028 - May also be related, as merging the unlabeled PR causes another PR to be opened instead of creating the release.

#1006 seems to confirm the that the labeling issue is causing a loop.

✔ Successfully found branch HEAD sha "13765cf982996c53e86ac13e83115f7843c335ee".
✔ Successfully created branch at https://api.github.com/repos/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/git/refs/heads/release-please--branches--main
✔ Got the latest commit tree
✔ Successfully created a tree with the desired changes with SHA d37132e2365a94caa53e06b7ba7463ad1044faaa
✔ Successfully created commit. See commit at https://api.github.com/repos/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/git/commits/321629a5187e032566f82ae44fcb851229f2620b
✔ Updating reference heads/release-please--branches--main to 321629a5187e032566f82ae44fcb851229f2620b
✔ Successfully updated reference release-please--branches--main to 321629a5187e032566f82ae44fcb851229f2620b
✔ Successfully opened pull request available at url: https://api.github.com/repos/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/pulls/2.
✔ Successfully opened pull request: 2.
✔ Successfully added labels autorelease: pending to issue: 2

HEAD (19abe7a) - squash merge commit of PR-2

 ✔ Successfully found branch HEAD sha "19abe7a51489de29f6ab0ba7bc1288040b3ece28".
✔ Skipping branch creation step...
✔ Got the latest commit tree
✔ Successfully created a tree with the desired changes with SHA 32bc9007e09c658767393e7f7e9c00ccb0a432c0
✔ Successfully created commit. See commit at https://api.github.com/repos/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/git/commits/10256b31d6f177bfa9c74f6ecc34642c329f1d8c
✔ Updating reference heads/release-please--branches--main to 10256b31d6f177bfa9c74f6ecc34642c329f1d8c
✔ Successfully updated reference release-please--branches--main to 10256b31d6f177bfa9c74f6ecc34642c329f1d8c
✔ Successfully opened pull request available at url: https://api.github.com/repos/syaghoubi00/actions-testing/pulls/3.
✔ Successfully opened pull request: 3.
✔ Successfully added labels autorelease: pending to issue: 3

[Aaron-Ritter]

fyi i updated #1072 it does only work once you've run it once with a PAT and then switch back to the normal github_token. It is not creating the labels.

when you manually create two labels autorelease: pending and autorelease: tagged it starts working