Cloud automation cannot authenticate with GitHub despite permissions granted

[JakeS (Jake)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Background Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)

Describe the Bug

We have an automation configured to respond to questions from a Slack channel and find answers from our GitHub organization’s repositories. It has worked fine for a couple of weeks but today started reporting insufficient permissions.

We have granted the additional permissions in GitHub that were requested, but the automation continues to fail with the same message.

The only interaction that did succeed was one where we asked the automation if it was fixed. In its thinking, it was able to connect to our GitHub organization and list a connected repository.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Configure an automation to respond to questions in Slack with a GitHub connection
2. Ask a question that requires GitHub access to answer
3. Verify no response in Slack and the attached error message in the Automation run history

Expected Behavior

Reference code in GitHub to respond to questions in Slack.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Cloud Automation

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Opus 4.6 High

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

https://cursor.com/automations/e3fd7a6f-e57c-4559-bc65-9d84d1dc85d8/runs

Additional Information

I tried disabling the GitHub connection and re-enabling it from scratch, which also did not resolve the issue.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[JakeS (Jake)]

GitHub Org permissions

[mohitjain (Mohit)]

Hey @JakeS,

This is a known issue that our team is actively working on. The underlying authentication mechanism for Cloud Automations can get into a stale state where it fails to properly recognize valid GitHub permissions, even though your setup looks correct.

Since you’ve already tried disconnecting and reconnecting the GitHub integration, the standard workaround unfortunately won’t help here. A fix is currently in code review and should be deployed soon.

In the meantime, one thing worth trying: check what permission scope your automation is set to. If it’s set to USER, try switching it to TEAM. Team-scoped automations use a different authentication path and may work around the issue.

We’ll update this thread once the fix is deployed. Apologies for the disruption.

[JakeS (Jake)]

Thanks for the update, Mohit! I’ll stay tuned for the bugfix being live.

For the permission scope question, is that setting controlled by the dropdown in this screenshot?

[mohitjain (Mohit)]

Yes, that’s the right dropdown! The “Run as service account” options (which you’re already using with “Admin editable”) control how the automation authenticates with GitHub and other connected integrations.

Since you’re already on a service account scope, the workaround I mentioned wouldn’t change anything for your setup – you’re already on the team-level auth path.

The fix is still working its way through review. I’ll follow up here once it’s deployed.

[JakeS (Jake)]

ok great, thank you!

[JakeS (Jake)]

Hi Mohit,

Support reached out saying the fix has gone out. We had to re-create the automation from scratch, but it is now working again! Thanks for your help!