`getNoLanguagesError` / Did not detect any languages to analyze. Please update input in workflow or check that GitHub detects the correct languages in your repository.

Start with the CodeQL workflow and the github/codeql-action/init logs linked in runs 7839464145, 7840155320, and 7840157412; compare language detection with the differing fork permissions. Done means the no-language and permission-related failures clearly explain their cause and point users to the relevant workflow or documentation guidance.

I created two forks of https://github.com/octokit/request.js:

1. https://github.com/jsoref/request.js
2. https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/request.js

both were created at approximately the same time.

Every single run of the codeql workflow in my repository has ❌ failed.

The first three runs ❌ failed in check-spelling-sandbox, but after giving it security-events: write, it would occasionally
✅ succeed -- and it never yielded the output below.

I'm quite confused by the behavior and output of https://github.com/jsoref/request.js/actions/runs/7839464145

To some extent, the commits in my fork are just copies of the commits in the sandbox fork...

Annotations

1 error and 1 warning
CodeQL-Build
Did not detect any languages to analyze. Please update input in workflow or check that GitHub detects the correct languages in your repository.
CodeQL-Build
Debugging artifacts are unavailable since the 'init' Action failed before it could produce any.

https://github.com/jsoref/request.js/actions/runs/7839464145/job/21392525353

Run github/codeql-action/init@v3
Setup CodeQL tools
Validating workflow
Load language configuration
  /opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/codeql resolve languages --format=json
  {
    "xml" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/xml"
    ],
    "javascript" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/javascript"
    ],
    "go" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/go"
    ],
    "python" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/python"
    ],
    "properties" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/properties"
    ],
    "ruby" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/ruby"
    ],
    "csharp" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/csharp"
    ],
    "html" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/html"
    ],
    "java" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/java"
    ],
    "yaml" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/yaml"
    ],
    "swift" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/swift"
    ],
    "cpp" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/cpp"
    ],
    "csv" : [
      "/opt/hostedtoolcache/CodeQL/2.16.1/x64/codeql/csv"
    ]
  }
  Automatically detected languages: 
  Error: Did not detect any languages to analyze. Please update input in workflow or check that GitHub detects the correct languages in your repository.

-- note that this repository is configured w/ default read&write permissions (I haven't adjusted my forking code to disable actions -- I will probably do that eventually as workflows in my personal account are too dangerous and frustrating).

---

By contrast, https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/request.js/actions/runs/7840155320 fails in a way that I understand (and am working to fix):

Annotations

2 errors and 1 warning
CodeQL-Build
Resource not accessible by integration
CodeQL-Build
Resource not accessible by integration
CodeQL-Build
Debugging artifacts are unavailable since the 'init' Action failed before it could produce any.

And https://github.com/check-spelling-sandbox/request.js/actions/runs/7840157412 passes

Annotations

2 warnings
CodeQL-Build
This run of the CodeQL Action does not have permission to access Code Scanning API endpoints. As a result, it will not be opted into any experimental features. This could be because the Action is running on a pull request from a fork. If not, please ensure the Action has the 'security-events: write' permission. Details: Resource not accessible by integration
CodeQL-Build
Feature flags do not specify a default CLI version. Falling back to the CLI version shipped with the Action. This is 2.16.1.

-- for the record, the check-spelling-sandbox org uses https://docs.github.com/en/organizations/managing-organization-settings/disabling-or-limiting-github-actions-for-your-organization#setting-the-permissions-of-the-github_token-for-your-organization to restrict permissions to read -- eventually I'll file a PR to improve the message here since it should be aware that this is a possibility.

---

Isn't this all the same code? Why would one of my forks complain about not being able to guess what file types are involved while another is able to?

Ideally the error reporting should be sufficiently clear that a non expert would be able to understand what to do. If the possible actions necessary to resolve the problem are sufficiently complicated, then it'd be a good idea to linking to a document that can walk users through the possibilities.