Login action

About

GitHub Action to login against a Docker registry.

---

• Usage
  • Docker Hub
  • GitHub Container Registry
  • GitLab
  • Azure Container Registry (ACR)
  • Google Container Registry (GCR)
  • Google Artifact Registry (GAR)
  • AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
  • AWS Public Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
  • OCI Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry (OCIR)
  • Quay.io
  • DigitalOcean
  • Authenticate to multiple registries
  • Set scopes for the authentication token
• Customizing
  • inputs
• Contributing

Usage

Docker Hub

When authenticating to Docker Hub with GitHub Actions,
use a personal access token.
Don't use your account password.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          username: ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}

GitHub Container Registry

To authenticate to the GitHub Container Registry,
use the GITHUB_TOKEN
secret.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

You may need to manage write and read access of GitHub Actions
for repositories in the container settings.

You can also use a personal access token (PAT)
with the appropriate scopes.

GitLab

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to GitLab
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: registry.gitlab.com
          username: ${{ vars.GITLAB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITLAB_PASSWORD }}

If you have Two-Factor Authentication
enabled, use a Personal Access Token
instead of a password.

Azure Container Registry (ACR)

Service principal

Create a service principal
with access to your container registry through the Azure CLI
and take note of the generated service principal's ID (also called client ID)
and password (also called client secret).

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to ACR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <registry-name>.azurecr.io
          username: ${{ vars.AZURE_CLIENT_ID }}
          password: ${{ secrets.AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <registry-name> with the name of your registry.

OpenID Connect (OIDC)

To authenticate with OpenID Connect, configure a federated identity credential
for GitHub Actions and use the Azure Login
action to sign in to Azure. Then expose an ACR access token and pass it to this
action as the password.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Azure
        uses: azure/login@v3
        with:
          client-id: ${{ vars.AZURE_CLIENT_ID }}
          tenant-id: ${{ vars.AZURE_TENANT_ID }}
          subscription-id: ${{ vars.AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID }}
      -
        name: Get ACR access token
        id: acr-token
        run: |
          ACR_TOKEN=$(az acr login --name <registry-name> --expose-token --output tsv --query accessToken)
          echo "::add-mask::$ACR_TOKEN" # mask the token in workflow logs
          echo "token=$ACR_TOKEN" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
      -
        name: Login to ACR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <registry-name>.azurecr.io
          username: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
          password: ${{ steps.acr-token.outputs.token }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <registry-name> with the name of your registry.

Google Container Registry (GCR)

[!NOTE]
Google Artifact Registry is the evolution of
Google Container Registry. As a fully-managed service with support for both
container images and non-container artifacts. If you currently use Google
Container Registry, use the information on this page
to learn about transitioning to Google Artifact Registry.

You can authenticate with workload identity federation or a service account.

Workload identity federation

Configure the workload identity federation for GitHub Actions in Google Cloud,
see here.
Your service account must have permission to push to GCR. Use the
google-github-actions/auth action to authenticate using workload identity as
shown in the following example:

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    -
      name: Authenticate to Google Cloud
      id: auth
      uses: google-github-actions/auth@v3
      with:
        token_format: access_token
        workload_identity_provider: <workload_identity_provider>
        service_account: <service_account>
    -
      name: Login to GCR
      uses: docker/login-action@v4
      with:
        registry: gcr.io
        username: oauth2accesstoken
        password: ${{ steps.auth.outputs.access_token }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <workload_identity_provider> with configured workload identity
provider. For steps to configure, see here.

Replace <service_account> with configured service account in workload
identity provider which has access to push to GCR

Service account based authentication

Use a service account with permission to push to GCR and configure access control.
Download the key for the service account as a JSON file. Save the contents of
the file as a secret
named GCR_JSON_KEY in your GitHub repository. Set the username to _json_key.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to GCR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: gcr.io
          username: _json_key
          password: ${{ secrets.GCR_JSON_KEY }}

Google Artifact Registry (GAR)

You can authenticate with workload identity federation or a service account.

Workload identity federation

Your service account must have permission to push to GAR. Use the
google-github-actions/auth action to authenticate using workload identity as
shown in the following example:

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Authenticate to Google Cloud
        id: auth
        uses: google-github-actions/auth@v3
        with:
          token_format: access_token
          workload_identity_provider: <workload_identity_provider>
          service_account: <service_account>
      -
        name: Login to GAR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <location>-docker.pkg.dev
          username: oauth2accesstoken
          password: ${{ steps.auth.outputs.access_token }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <workload_identity_provider> with configured workload identity
provider

Replace <service_account> with configured service account in workload
identity provider which has access to push to GCR

Replace <location> with the regional or multi-regional location
of the repository where the image is stored.

Service account based authentication

Use a service account with permission to push to GAR and configure access control.
Download the key for the service account as a JSON file. Save the contents of
the file as a secret
named GAR_JSON_KEY in your GitHub repository. Set the username to _json_key,
or _json_key_base64 if you use a base64-encoded key.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to GAR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <location>-docker.pkg.dev
          username: _json_key
          password: ${{ secrets.GAR_JSON_KEY }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <location> with the regional or multi-regional location
of the repository where the image is stored.

AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR)

Use an IAM user with the ability to push to ECR with AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryPowerUser managed policy for example.
Download the access keys and save them as AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY as secrets
in your GitHub repo.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to ECR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <aws-account-number>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
          username: ${{ vars.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          password: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}

If you need to log in to Amazon ECR registries associated with other accounts,
you can use the AWS_ACCOUNT_IDS environment variable:

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to ECR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <aws-account-number>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
          username: ${{ vars.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          password: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
        env:
          AWS_ACCOUNT_IDS: 012345678910,023456789012

[!NOTE]
Only available with AWS CLI version 1

You can also use the Configure AWS Credentials
action in combination with this action:

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Configure AWS Credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v6
        with:
          aws-access-key-id: ${{ vars.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: <region>
      -
        name: Login to ECR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <aws-account-number>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com

[!NOTE]
Replace <aws-account-number> and <region> with their respective values.

AWS Public Elastic Container Registry (ECR)

Use an IAM user with permission to push to ECR Public, for example using managed policies.
Download the access keys and save them as AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY secrets
in your GitHub repository.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Public ECR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: public.ecr.aws
          username: ${{ vars.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          password: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
        env:
          AWS_REGION: <region>

[!NOTE]
Replace <region> with its respective value (default us-east-1).

OCI Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry (OCIR)

To push into OCIR in specific tenancy the username
must be placed in format <tenancy>/<username> (in case of federated tenancy use the format
<tenancy-namespace>/oracleidentitycloudservice/<username>).

For password create an auth token.
Save username and token as a secrets
in your GitHub repo.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to OCIR
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: <region>.ocir.io
          username: ${{ vars.OCI_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.OCI_TOKEN }}

[!NOTE]
Replace <region> with their respective values from availability regions

Quay.io

Use a Robot account with
permission to push to a Quay.io repository.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Quay.io
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: quay.io
          username: ${{ vars.QUAY_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.QUAY_ROBOT_TOKEN }}

DigitalOcean Container Registry

Use your DigitalOcean registered email address and an API access token to authenticate.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to DigitalOcean Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: registry.digitalocean.com
          username: ${{ vars.DIGITALOCEAN_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

Authenticate to multiple registries

To authenticate against multiple registries, you can specify the login-action
step multiple times in your workflow:

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          username: ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

You can also use the registry-auth input for raw authentication to
registries, defined as YAML objects. Each object have the same attributes as
current inputs (except logout):

[!WARNING]
We don't recommend using this method, it's better to use the action multiple
times as shown above.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to registries
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          registry-auth: |
            - username: ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
              password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
            - registry: ghcr.io
              username: ${{ github.actor }}
              password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Set scopes for the authentication token

The scope input allows limiting registry credentials to a specific repository
or namespace scope when building images with Buildx.

This is useful in GitHub Actions to avoid overriding the Docker Hub
authentication token embedded in GitHub-hosted runners, which is used for
pulling images without rate limits. By scoping credentials, you can
authenticate only where needed (typically for pushing), while keeping
unauthenticated pulls for base images.

When scope is set, credentials are written to the Buildx configuration
instead of the global Docker configuration. This means:

• Authentication applies only to the specified scope
• The default Docker Hub credentials remain available for pulls
• Credentials are used only by Buildx during the build

[!IMPORTANT]
Credentials written to the Buildx configuration are only accessible by Buildx.
They are not available to docker pull, docker push, or any other Docker
CLI commands outside Buildx.

[!NOTE]
This feature requires Buildx version 0.31.0 or later.

yamlCopy
name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  login:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub (scoped)
        uses: docker/login-action@v4
        with:
          username: ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
          scope: 'myorg/myimage@push'
      -
        name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v7
        with:
          push: true
          tags: myorg/myimage:latest

In this example, base images are pulled using the embedded GitHub-hosted runner
credentials, while authenticated access is used only to push myorg/myimage.

Customizing

inputs

The following inputs can be used as step.with keys:

Name	Type	Default	Description
registry	String	docker.io	Server address of Docker registry. If not set then will default to Docker Hub
username	String		Username for authenticating to the Docker registry
password	String		Password or personal access token for authenticating the Docker registry
scope	String		Scope for the authentication token
ecr	String	auto	Specifies whether the given registry is ECR (auto, true or false)
logout	Bool	true	Log out from the Docker registry at the end of a job
registry-auth	YAML		Raw authentication to registries, defined as YAML objects

[!NOTE]
The registry-auth input cannot be used with other inputs except logout.

Contributing

Want to contribute? Awesome! You can find information about contributing to
this project in the CONTRIBUTING.md