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ssh-agent & ssh-add is missing from python-semantic-release github action #1376
Description
Question
I've been using python-semantic-release to deploy my open source packages for years now, but recently the jobs started failing because ssh-agent and ssh-add are apparently unavailable. Has something changed, such that I need to install the openssh-client before calling the tool? Or is this something that should be handled within the python-semantic-release GitHub Action?
Configuration
Semantic Release Configuration
[tool.semantic_release]
build_command = "python3 -m pip install poetry && poetry build"
commit_message = """
chore: Release v{version}
Automatically generated by python-semantic-release."""
version_variables = [
"doc/source/conf.py:version",
"reverse_argparse/__init__.py:__version__",
]
version_toml = [
"pyproject.toml:tool.poetry.version",
]
[tool.semantic_release.branches.master]
match = "master"
[tool.semantic_release.changelog]
exclude_commit_patterns = [
"chore.*deps.*Bump",
"Merge pull request",
"ci.*pre-commit.*auto-update",
]
[tool.semantic_release.commit_author]
env = "GIT_COMMIT_AUTHOR"
default = "semantic-release <semantic-release>"
[tool.semantic_release.commit_parser_options]
allowed_tags = [
"build",
"chore",
"ci",
"docs",
"feat",
"fix",
"minor",
"patch",
"perf",
"refactor",
"style",
"test",
]
minor_tags = ["feat", "minor"]
patch_tags = ["fix", "patch", "perf"]See also my pyproject.toml for fuller details.
Additional context
Here's a failing job from this workflow configuration, which yields
...
SSH Key pair found, configuring signing...
mkdir: created directory '/github/home/.ssh'
***
4d04b340ba4ac06a205eb7fb725a9c0ad4211a20ae54ba953ab0bf267d0279bf /github/home/.ssh/signing_key
/usr/local/bin/action-entrypoint: line 159: ssh-agent: command not found
/usr/local/bin/action-entrypoint: line 160: ssh-add: command not found
I tried adding
- name: Install openssh-client
run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y openssh-clientright before the python-semantic-release GitHub Action, but that didn't change the behavior.
Activity
codejedi365 commentedon Nov 20, 2025
@jmgate, that's a good catch. I recently updated the version of the docker image that is used for the base and chose to also make it a slim image to speed up workflows. The container build steps evidently does not install an ssh client and creates your issue. We will need to fix that.
fix(gh-action): install openssh-client in Docker image
fix(github-action): fix failed signing issue when ssh was missing fro…
fix(github-action): fix failed signing issue when ssh was missing fro…
fix(github-action): fix failed signing issue when ssh was missing fro…
fix(github-action): fix failed signing issue when ssh was missing fro…
[-]Do I need to install openssh-client before running python-semantic-release?[/-][+]`ssh-agent` & `ssh-add` is missing from python-semantic-release github action[/+]codejedi365 commentedon Dec 14, 2025
🎉 This issue has been resolved in v10.5.3 🎉
You can find more information about this release on the GitHub Releases page.
If your issue persists, please reply here and we will re-open the issue. If you receive a new error, please open a new issue and reference this issue there.