This resource can only be used in the context of an organization, "" is a user

[MaXeraph]

Terraform Version

• Terraform version: 1.0.0
• Github version: 4.11.0

Affected Resource(s)

• github_membership

Terraform Configuration Files

resource "github_membership" "configuration" {
  username = var.username
  role     = var.role
}

variable "username" {}

variable "role" {
  default = "member"
}

provider "github" {
  owner = "foo"
}

Debug Output

Debug/Trace doesn't show any new output that could specify the error.

Panic Output

N/A

Expected Behavior

Should be able to output a plan to remove github_membership resource belonging to an organization.

Actual Behavior

Errors:

Error: This resource can only be used in the context of an organization, "" is a user.

  with module.users_foo["bar"].github_membership.configuration,
  on modules/user-memberships/main.tf line 1, in resource "github_membership" "configuration":
   1: resource "github_membership" "configuration" {

Steps to Reproduce

1. terraform plan --refresh=false

Important Factoids

• Errors and crashes when running plan on Jenkins. There were no changes on our Jenkins configuration, and we were able to run plan and apply with no errors prior to this config modification.
• Locally running the same configuration with terraform plan --refresh=false successfully create a plan. However, it is run with my own Github token, supplied in the provider resource. Whereas Jenkins utilizes a global token (which has been working fine until now) in env GITHUB_TOKEN

References

Possibly related to https://github.com/integrations/terraform-provider-github/issues/501

[martyca]

I was experiencing this behaviour when updating the remote (terraform cloud) state file from my CLI using terraform import github_team.core 1234567. I resolved the issue by locally setting the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN to my personal access token (which has the same privileges as the token set on my terrraform cloud workspace) In my case the issue was that I was trying to access resources locally that I was not authenticated to do. see: https://registry.terraform.io/providers/integrations/github/latest/docs#authentication

[roobert]

Hey, I have also come across this same problem. The issue happens for me when using modules, it seems like the provider owner value is not inherited by modules and GITHUB_OWNER must be set in the environment in order to fix.

edited to add: Like @martyca, I have also found that I must have GITHUB_TOKEN set even though I have provided the token to the github provider block.

[alvarolorentedev]

still happening in 4.13.0

@roobert workaround of environment variables still works, but it relies now on a deprecated functionality.

╷
│ Warning: "organization": [DEPRECATED] Use owner (or GITHUB_OWNER) instead of organization (or GITHUB_ORGANIZATION)
│ 
│   with provider["registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/github"],
│   on <empty> line 0:
│   (source code not available)
│ 

[hazcod]

Encountering the same in v4.17.0.

[guillermotti]

Yes, as @hazcod said, with v4.17.0 I faced the same problem creating a new team

[lcaille]

Hi, same error with v4.18.0 too.

[hazcod]

Same with v4.19.0... Workaround:

export GITHUB_OWNER="${TF_VAR_github_owner}"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_github_token}"

[mwos-sl]

exporting GITHUB_OWNER does not solve the problem for me. v4.24.1

[hazcod]

Still needing to do export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_github_token}" to workaround.

[kmdouglass]

Same with v4.19.0... Workaround:

export GITHUB_OWNER="${TF_VAR_github_owner}"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_github_token}"

This solution works for me with integrations/github provider version 4.28.0 so long as the provider configuration block is empty. In other words:

provider "github" {
  token = "var.token"
  owner = "my-org"
}

will fail even with the GITHUB_TOKEN and GITHUB_OWNER environment variables set, but

provider "github" {}

will work if the environment variables are set.

[alexlop29]

Same with v4.19.0... Workaround:

export GITHUB_OWNER="${TF_VAR_github_owner}"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_github_token}"

This solution works for me with integrations/github provider version 4.28.0 so long as the provider configuration block is empty. In other words:

provider "github" {
  token = "var.token"
  owner = "my-org"
}

will fail even with the GITHUB_TOKEN and GITHUB_OWNER environment variables set, but

provider "github" {}

will work if the environment variables are set.

+1 with v.5.7.0

[kfcampbell]

it seems like the provider owner value is not inherited by modules and GITHUB_OWNER must be set in the environment in order to fix.

I wonder if that's a thing we can adjust in our code or a limitation of Terraform as a whole.

[sergio91zulu]

Work For me, Provider configure:

variable "GITHUB_TOKEN" {
  description = "Github Token Admin"
  type        = string
}

variable "GITHUB_OWNER" {
  description = "Github Owner Organization"
  type        = string
}

  required_providers {
    github = {
      source  = "integrations/github"
      version = "~> 4.0"
    }
  }

provider "github" {
  token     = var.GITHUB_TOKEN
  owner     = var.GITHUB_OWNER
}

export TF_VAR_GITHUB_TOKEN={personal_token} export TF_VAR_GITHUB_OWNER={org-name} export GITHUB_OWNER="${TF_VAR_GITHUB_OWNER}" export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_GITHUB_TOKEN}"

[shaun-rutherford]

I'm in the process of updating our TF code base from the 2.x version of github when I ran into this issue.

It looks like this issue starts in v3.0.0. I tested on v2.9.1 and it works without issue.

[kfcampbell]

Hmm...here's the diff between those two tags. There's some changes in github/config.go that could potentially be at fault.

[thetimbecker]

BEWARE: this error is very misleading. We thought the Go library needed because of https://github.com/integrations/terraform-provider-github/issues/1391

For us, it turns out our Personal Access Token just stopped working for some reason. We made a new token and everything started working again.

Seems like this has come up a lot: https://github.com/integrations/terraform-provider-github/search?q=in+the+context+of+an+organization+is+a+user&type=issues

Maybe this can be added to the README or something as a troubleshooting step?

[kfcampbell]

@thetimbecker agreed that usually the cause is an invalid PAT! Would you be interested in opening up a PR to update the docs accordingly?

[aiham]

Same with v4.19.0... Workaround:

export GITHUB_OWNER="${TF_VAR_github_owner}"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="${TF_VAR_github_token}"

This solution works for me with integrations/github provider version 4.28.0 so long as the provider configuration block is empty. In other words:

provider "github" {
  token = "var.token"
  owner = "my-org"
}

will fail even with the GITHUB_TOKEN and GITHUB_OWNER environment variables set, but

provider "github" {}

will work if the environment variables are set.

+1 with v.5.7.0

Here's another confirmation 4 months later. This workaround still works in v5.18.0.

[thetimbecker]

@thetimbecker agreed that usually the cause is an invalid PAT! Would you be interested in opening up a PR to update the docs accordingly?

Clearly I never got around to this 😅

Unfortunately I can't take the time to do it well right now, especially since the issue it's fresh in my mind anymore.

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