"remote: You are not allowed to upload code." while uploading code using GitLab CI Pipline

We have a GitLab CI Pipeline that is responsible for the release process.

Here is the pipeline for the release stage:

release:
  before_script:
    - |
      git config --global user.email $GIT_USER_EMAIL
      git config --global user.name $GIT_USERNAME
      npm install -g standard-version
  stage: release
  image: node:14.15
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
      when: never                                  
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == 'develop'           
  script:
    - nextVersion=`npm run release -- --dry-run | grep -oP '(?<=tagging release ).*'`
    - standard-version
    - git push --follow-tags origin HEAD:$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH

Up until the standard-version line it's working fine, but in the last command I am getting the following error:

remote: You are not allowed to upload code.
fatal: unable to access 'https://gitlab-ci-token:[MASKED]@gitlab.com/project_name/repo_name.git/': The requested URL returned error: 403

Can anyone please help me to solve this issue?

I had a problem similar to yours, with a pipeline that commits to another repo. Not on gitlab.com, but on a private GitLab instance. The push command below works here.

git push -f https://myusername:$ACCESS_TOKEN@$CI_SERVER_HOST/$CI_PROJECT_PATH.git HEAD:${CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME}

What matters for access control is the token. Any non-empty string should work as username [1]. The access token on the instance I use has write-repository scope.

There is also a CI-variable [2] in the project that contains the token. The variable brings the token into the environment where the git push command runs.

The idea comes from this pipeline example:
https://gitlab.com/guided-explorations/gitlab-ci-yml-tips-tricks-and-hacks/commit-to-repos-during-ci/commit-to-repos-during-ci/-/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml

References:
[1] https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/settings/project_access_tokens.html
[2] https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-project