[P1] Lockdown token failures: Issue Monster, PR Triage Agent, Daily Issues Report, Org Health Report #20643

Problem

Four high-frequency agentic workflows continue to fail due to lockdown mode requiring GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN which is not configured as a repository secret. This is an ongoing issue (Day 16+).

Previous tracking issue #20315 was auto-closed on 2026-03-11 (expiry). This is a fresh tracking issue.

Affected Workflows

Error Message

Lockdown mode is enabled (lockdown: true) but no custom GitHub token is configured.

Please configure one of the following as a repository secret:
  - GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN (recommended)
  - GH_AW_GITHUB_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN (alternative)
  - Custom github-token in your workflow frontmatter

See: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/blob/main/docs/src/content/docs/reference/auth.mdx

Root Cause

These workflows use lockdown: true in their MCP configuration (which requires GitHub API access via a fine-grained PAT), but GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN is not set as a repository secret.

Fix Options

Option 1 (Recommended): Configure GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN secret

gh aw secrets set GH_AW_GITHUB_TOKEN --value "YOUR_FINE_GRAINED_PAT"

The PAT needs: issues: read/write, pull_requests: read/write, contents: read.

Option 2: Remove lockdown: true from affected workflow frontmatter (reduces security posture).

Option 3: Add github-token: $\{\{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} to the affected workflows' MCP config.

History

• Previous tracking issues [P1] Lockdown token failures: Issue Monster, PR Triage Agent, Daily Issues Report #20315 (Mar 10), [aw] Issue Monster failed #18919, [aw] PR Triage Agent failed #18952 — all expired/closed
• NO CURRENT FIX PATH — manual admin intervention required to provision the token
• Ongoing since ~Feb 25, 2026 (Day 16+)

References

• §22991093860 — Issue Monster run Add --mcp flag to init command for Copilot Agent MCP configuration #2733 (today)
• §22989408565 — PR Triage Agent run MCP Network Permissions Test Results - Proxy Isolation Validation #196 (today)
• Docs: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/blob/main/docs/src/content/docs/reference/auth.mdx
  Related to Workflow Health Manager - Meta-Orchestrator - Issue Group #19352

Generated by Workflow Health Manager - Meta-Orchestrator · ◷

• expires on Mar 13, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC