# Simple reusable workflow example not working

**URL:** <https://forum.gitea.com/t/simple-reusable-workflow-example-not-working/11960>\
**Category:** Actions\
**Created:** [February 4, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/simple-reusable-workflow-example-not-working/11960 "2026-02-04T17:34:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@phil](https://forum.gitea.com/u/phil)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.gitea.com/t/simple-reusable-workflow-example-not-working/11960/1 "2026-02-04T17:34:30Z")

</div>

I feel like this should be possible but I just can’t get this to work. I want to create a reusable workflow in a repo. In the SAME organization, I want to use that workflow by passing custom input. I’m using Gitea 1.25.3 and act\_runner 0.2.13. I’m running act\_runner on a host (not in a Docker container). I’ve verified that act\_runner is working just fine with a simple workflow from one repo.

From the repo that contains the reusable workflow (myorg/workflows/.gitea/workflows/test.yml):

```auto
name: Greet User

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      USERNAME:
        description: 'Users name'
        required: true
        type: string

jobs:
  greet:
    runs-on: my-runner
    name: Greet the user

    steps:
      - name: ASDF
        run: |
          echo ${{ inputs.USERNAME }}

```

From the calling repo (myorg/test/.gitea/workflows/test.yml):

```auto
name: Testing

on:
  workflow_dispatch: {}

jobs:
  greet-user:
    uses: myorg/workflows/.gitea/workflows/test.yml@main
    with:
      USERNAME: "my user id"

```

The error I’m getting:

```auto
HOSTNAME(version:v0.2.13) received task 143 of job greet-user, be triggered by event: workflow_dispatch
workflow prepared
evaluating expression 'success()'
expression 'success()' evaluated to 'true'
  ☁ git clone 'https://my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows' # ref=main
  cloning https://my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows to /path/to/gitea-runner/act/myorg-workflows@main
Unable to clone https://my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows refs/heads/main: authentication required: Unauthorized
authentication required: Unauthorized\n

```

My org is “Limited“ and my two repos are not private. I spent some time searching this forum, issues and pull requests in [github](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea)and [gitea](https://gitea.com/gitea/). I even tried using a PAT in the URL. I’ve seen some others have success with this:

```auto
uses: https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows/.gitea/workflows/test.yml@main

```

This resulted in another error:

```auto
HOSTNAME(version:v0.2.13) received task 153 of job greet-user, be triggered by event: workflow_dispatch
workflow prepared
evaluating expression 'success()'
expression 'success()' evaluated to 'true'
  ☁ git clone 'https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows' # ref=main
  cloning https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows to /path/to/gitea-runner/act/myorg-workflows@main
Unable to clone https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows refs/heads/main: parse "https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflowse": net/url: invalid userinfo
parse "https://${{ secrets.MY_PAT }}:@my.gitea.instance/myorg/workflows": net/url: invalid userinfo

```

I’m out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!