Error in PowerShell Archive module while using Run actions/checkout@v4

[abhijit-nightfall]

Since 1st Dec 2025 evening IST, we started noticing that actions/checkout are failing for scheduled runs and PR triggers, but not for manual triggers.
Meanwhile, we did not make any changes in the pipeline.

Error Logs:

Deleting the contents of 'C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite'
The repository will be downloaded using the GitHub REST API
To create a local Git repository instead, add Git 2.18 or higher to the PATH
Downloading the archive
Writing archive to disk
Extracting the archive
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoLogo -Sta -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' ; try { Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem } catch { } ; if ((Get-Command -Name Expand-Archive -Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive -ErrorAction Ignore)) { Expand-Archive -LiteralPath 'C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite\b5df6318-fc4a-4e40-aea3-d53216770c9f.zip' -DestinationPath 'C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite\b5df6318-fc4a-4e40-aea3-d53216770c9f' -Force } else {[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory('C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite\b5df6318-fc4a-4e40-aea3-d53216770c9f.zip', 'C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite\b5df6318-fc4a-4e40-aea3-d53216770c9f', $true) }"
Remove-Item : Cannot find path 'C:\Users\Administrator\actions-runner\_work\e2e-test-suite\e2e-test-suite\b5df6318-fc4a
-4e40-aea3-d53216770c9f\watchtowerai-e2e-test-suite-a44d7d3792f2b8d55056a061d16bcadf1ae8ed7b\.cursor\' because it does 
not exist.
At 
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive\Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive.psm1:411 
char:46
+ ...                 $expandedItems | % { Remove-Item $_ -Force -Recurse }
+                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\Users\Admini...e8ed7b\.cursor\:String) [Remove-Item], ItemNotFoundEx 
   ception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
 
Error: The process 'C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe' failed with exit code 1

[ericsciple]

@abhijit-nightfall it looks like the error is coming from PowerShell Archive module. That logic is invoked when git is not in the PATH - the sources are downloaded as a ZIP and on Windows extracted using PowerShell.

A workaround might be to add git to the PATH.

[abhijit-nightfall]

@ericsciple Thanks for the workaround.