just: command alias could not be run because just could not find the shell

Question

I'd like to reference some commands I've set up in my justfile to be used in some steps of the CI pipeline (namely in my actions.yaml file) and I'm encountering issues. For personal preference, I'd like just commands to be run on powershell both locally and in the CI pipeline.

My justfile is as follows (it is meant to be run on a Windows machine):

# Use PowerShell instead of sh, https://just.systems/man/en/chapter_3.html
set shell := ["powershell.exe", "-c"]

help:
  @just --list

install:
  @echo "🚀 Installing dependencies"
  @poetry install --with dev

install-pre-commit:
  @echo "🚀 Setting up the hooks"
  @poetry run pre-commit install

check-project:
  @echo "🚀 Checking consistency between poetry.lock and pyproject.toml"
  @poetry check --lock
  @echo "🚀 Running the hooks against all files"
  @poetry run pre-commit run --all-files

ruff:
  @echo "🚀 Linting the project with Ruff"
  @poetry run ruff check src tests

ruff-show-violations:
  @echo "🚀 Linting the project with Ruff and show violations"
  @poetry run ruff check --show-source --show-fixes src tests

ruff-fix:
  @echo "🚀 Linting the project with Ruff and autofix violations (where possible)"
  @poetry run ruff check --fix src tests

black:
  @echo "🚀 Formatting the code with Black"
  @poetry run black src tests

black-check:
  @echo "🚀 Checking formatting advices from Black"
  @poetry run black --check --diff src tests

lint-and-format: ruff black

test:
  @echo "🚀 Testing code with pytest"
  @poetry run pytest --verbose tests

test-and-report-cov:
  @echo "🚀 Testing code with pytest and generating coverage report"
  @poetry run pytest --cov=./ --cov-report=xml

And here is part of my actions.yaml file:

jobs:
  lint-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        shell: pwsh

  steps:
    - name: Check out repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Setup python
      uses: actions/setup-python@v4
      with:
        python-version: ${{ env.PYTHON_VERSION }}

    - name: Install Poetry
      uses: snok/install-poetry@v1
      with:
        virtualenvs-create: true
        virtualenvs-in-project: true
        installer-parallel: true

    - name: Load cached venv if cache exists
      id: cached-poetry-dependencies
      uses: actions/cache@v3
      with:
        path: .venv
        key: venv-${{ runner.os }}-${{ steps.setup-python.outputs.python-version }}-${{ hashFiles('**/poetry.lock') }}

    - name: Install dependencies if cache does not exist
      if: steps.cached-poetry-dependencies.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      run: poetry install --no-interaction --no-root

    - name: Install project
      run: poetry install --no-interaction

    - name: Setup just
      uses: taiki-e/install-action@just

    - name: Enforce code style (Ruff)
      run: just ruff-show-violations

    - name: Verify code formatting (Black)
      run: just black-check

    - name: Run tests
      run: just test

    - name: Generate test coverage report
      run: just test-and-report-cov

    - name: Upload coverage reports to Codecov
      uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}
        verbose: true

the most relevant steps in this regard being the definition of the default shell, just's setup (taiki-e/install-action@just, as per the manual) and the successive steps where just is invoked to run commands.

Along with the described setup, I get

> just ruff-show-violations
> shell: /usr/bin/pwsh -command ". '{0}'"
> env:
  > PYTHON_VERSION: 3.10
  > POETRY_VERSION: 1.6.1
    pythonLocation: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    PKG_CONFIG_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib/pkgconfig
    Python_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python2_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python3_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib
    VENV: .venv/bin/activate
**error: Recipe `ruff-show-violations` could not be run because just could not find the shell: No such file or directory (os error 2)
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.**

Based on the error message and in the idea of ensuring compatibility between set shell := ["powershell.exe", "-c"] in justfile and the setup of the default shell in actions.yaml (namely, trying to ensure alignment between the local execution environment and the Linux environment the Github Actions workflow runs on), I've tried to play around with these two with no luck. Neither setting pwsh nor powershell as default shell seems to work; specifying the shell at the level of single steps (with shell: option) doesn't work as well.

How to invoke just in GitHub Actions jobs' steps and run them on powershell?

Update

Setting things up to run on bash, you won't incur in any issue. Namely, removing set shell := ["powershell.exe", "-c"] from justfile (thus reverting to bash by default) and specifying bash to be the default shell on which to run jobs in actions.yaml I could get a working configuration. However, I am yet to find a configuration that could properly run everything on powershell.

Not completely sure about that, but I also noticed that - no matter what the default shell configuration was - taiki-e/install-action@just kept on running on bash, which might be the root cause of the problem. Plus, it doesn't accept a shell input (that I tried to pass via with: shell: ... option) with which one could try to force the shell where to run the specific step on. IOW, with

jobs:
  lint-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        shell: pwsh

  steps:
    ...
    ...
    - name: Setup just
      uses: taiki-e/install-action@just
      with:
        shell: pwsh

I got

Warning: Unexpected input(s) 'shell', valid inputs are ['tool', 'checksum']
Run taiki-e/install-action@just
  with:
    shell: pwsh
    tool: just
    checksum: true
  env:
    PYTHON_VERSION: 3.10
    POETRY_VERSION: 1.6.1
    pythonLocation: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    PKG_CONFIG_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib/pkgconfig
    Python_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python2_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    Python3_ROOT_DIR: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.10.13/x64/lib
    VENV: .venv/bin/activate
Run bash --noprofile --norc "${GITHUB_ACTION_PATH:?}/main.sh"
info: host platform: x86_64_linux
info: installing just@latest
info: downloading https://github.com/casey/just/releases/download/1.23.0/just-1.23.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
info: verifying sha256 checksum for just-1.23.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
info: just installed at /home/runner/.cargo/bin/just
+ just --version
just 1.23.0