Problem with Empty credentials.json File in GitHub Actions

I’m having trouble with GitHub Actions while trying to integrate with the Google Sheets API. I’m attempting to save my Google Sheets credentials as a credentials.json file from repository secrets, but the file that gets created is always empty. This results in an error in my Python script when I try to use the credentials for authentication.

Setup:
I’ve added a repository secret named GOOGLE_SHEETS_CREDENTIALS in GitHub, which contains the correct JSON file generated from Google Cloud Console.
In my GitHub Actions workflow, I’m trying to save the secret to a credentials.json file like this:

• name: Save Google Sheets credentials
  run: echo "${{ secrets.GOOGLE_SHEETS_CREDENTIALS }}" | tr -d ‘\r’ > credentials.json

I’m checking whether the file was saved correctly using this step:

• name: Debug: Check if credentials.json is empty
  run: |
  if [ ! -s credentials.json ]; then
  echo "Error: credentials.json is empty!"
  exit 1
  fi

The Problem:
I keep getting an error message saying that the credentials.json file is empty.

I’ve double-checked the secret in GitHub, and it contains the correct JSON file. I also added a step to output the secret to the logs, but I don’t see any data there either.

What I’ve Tried:
I’ve confirmed that the secret contains the full, valid JSON file from Google Cloud Console.
I’ve used tr -d ‘\r’ to remove any potential problematic line breaks.
I’ve added debugging steps, but the file always ends up empty.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or has any idea what could be going wrong? I would appreciate any help!

You need to sign in to view this answers