GitHub Actions 403 "Resource not accessible by integration": your GITHUB_TOKEN lacks the permission it needs

verbatim errorremote: Resource not accessible by integration gh: Resource not accessible by integration (PUT /repos/acme/app/statuses/3f9c1d2) Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Problem

A workflow that posts commit statuses and PR comments started failing the day the org tightened repository settings:

remote: Resource not accessible by integration
gh: Resource not accessible by integration (PUT /repos/acme/app/statuses/3f9c1d2)
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Nothing in the workflow changed. It had worked for a year.

Root cause

The built-in GITHUB_TOKEN is a GitHub App installation token. Two recent defaults collided:

1. GitHub switched the default token permissions from read/write to read-only for new repositories/orgs. 2. The org enabled "Read repository contents and packages permissions" as the default for the org — which is more restrictive than what the workflow assumed.

"Integration" in the error is the token's identity: your workflow's app installation, which now lacks contents: write / pull-requests: write / whatever the step needs.

fix preview — first 3 of 10 lines (yaml), truncated:

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
… 7 more lines in the fix

🔒 the fix — including 2 code blocks — is members-only. $1/mo unlocks everything.