docs(gitea): the README still named the ILLEGAL secret GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN

PR #15 renamed the Actions secret to SETTINGS_API_TOKEN because Gitea RESERVES the
GITEA_ prefix and rejects such a name with HTTP 400 "invalid secret name" -- the
defect that left the branch-protection detector inert and unnoticed. The README in
this very directory, which documents that story, went on naming the illegal name in
its behaviour table and in its closing "remaining step" line.

Both now say SETTINGS_API_TOKEN, plus a note recording what ci/gitea-settings.sh
ACTUALLY does, quoted from the file rather than assumed:

    TOKEN="${SETTINGS_API_TOKEN:-${GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN:-}}"

GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN is still honoured, but ONLY as an environment variable for a
local run -- it can never be the CI wiring, because the secret that would feed it
cannot be created at all. The closing line also predated PR #15 storing the secret;
it now says so.

Documentation only. No behaviour change.

NOT fixed here, because it is outside this PR's diff: ci/gitea-settings.sh:45 still
instructs the reader to "create a Gitea repo secret GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN", which is
impossible. Same defect, different file -- worth its own one-line change.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
This commit is contained in:
jakman85andClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-29 22:47:55 -05:00
1 parent 19f9a8ae0c
commit ae5c7385a5
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@@ -102,7 +102,19 @@ Behaviour, proven by test rather than assumed:
|---|---|---|
| live matches the declaration | 0 | green |
| any key drifted, or no runner online | 1 | **blocks the merge** |
| no `GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN`, or Gitea unreachable | 3 | skips **loudly**; never a pass, never a block |
| no `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`, or Gitea unreachable | 3 | skips **loudly**; never a pass, never a block |
> **The secret is `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`.** An earlier draft of this table named
> `GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN`, which **cannot exist as a Gitea secret at all** — Gitea reserves the
> `GITEA_` prefix and returns HTTP 400 `invalid secret name`. That is the whole 2026-09-29
> inert-detector story, so the wrong name surviving here is worth correcting rather than
> reading past. Measured in `ci/gitea-settings.sh`:
>
> TOKEN="${SETTINGS_API_TOKEN:-${GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN:-}}"
>
> so `GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN` is still honoured — but **only as an environment variable for a
> LOCAL run**. It can never be the CI wiring, because the secret that would feed it cannot be
> created. In CI, only `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` exists.
The skip is deliberately *not* a block: an unwired credential blocking every PR is the
lock-yourself-out failure this repo keeps hitting. Wire the token with `set-ci-token.sh`, confirm
@@ -177,8 +189,9 @@ These scripts encode the desired state and can re-assert it; `ci/gitea-settings.
**detector** that turns divergence from a silent, invisible failure into a loud one. It closes the
root cause of the 2026-09-29 session.
It is only as good as its wiring: **until `GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN` exists it skips**, and a skipped
detector detects nothing. That is the remaining step.
It is only as good as its wiring: **until `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` exists it skips**, and a skipped
detector detects nothing. (That secret was stored and verified in PR #15; this sentence predates
it. The name matters — see the note under the behaviour table above.)
## Historical sequence (kept for context)