GitHub Actions: environment variables not processing under "with" keyword - yaml

Question

MAIN ISSUE
While experimenting with github actions, faced an issue such that the default environment variables passed to pre-built actions specifically under the with syntax didn't getting processed, i.e.
- name: variable check
uses: external/action-module#v2
with:
option1: ${{ secrets.ENV_1 }}
option2: ${GITHUB_DEF_VARIABLE}
The secrets(${{ secrets.ENV_1 }}) getting rendered correctly while the github-actions default variables(${GITHUB_DEF_VARIABLE}) failed to render.
BACKGROUND AND REAL CASES
Showing some cases,
When calling an ansible playbook with github actions,
- name: Check ansible playbook execution with module
uses: dawidd6/action-ansible-playbook#v2
with:
playbook: ${{ secrets.ANSIBLE_ROOT }}/Playbooks/ping.yml
inventory: ${{ secrets.ANSIBLE_INVENTORY }}
options: |
--extra-vars github_workpath=${GITHUB_WORKSPACE} other_var=${{ secrets.EXTA_VAR }}
The issue is that the default env variable didn't getting processed (${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}), but the secrets rendering without any issues (${{ secrets.EXTA_VAR }})
Tried the same by setting an env: and then calling ${{ env.VARIABLE }} but that also not worked,
What finally worked for me was by manually calling playbook with inventory after setting the default variable to a global job env.
env:
project_path: ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}
steps:
- name: Calling Ansible playbook directly
run: >
ansible-playbook
-i ${{ secrets.ANSIBLE_ROOT }}/inventory.yml
${{ secrets.ANSIBLE_ROOT }}/Playbooks/ping.yml
--extra-vars github_workpath=${{ env.project_path }}
Now the ${{ env.project_path }} processed to give the desired output(passing the variable ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE} direct also failed)
The same issue faced when trying to send Job completion web-hook notification, eg
- name: Mattermost Notification
uses: komarnitskyi/action-mattermost-notification#v0.1.2-beta
with:
webhook: ${{ secrets.MATTERMOST_WEBHOOK_URL }}
text: "| ${GITHUB_EVENT_NAME} | ${GITHUB_REF##*/} | ${{ job.status }} |"
The end text displayed as ${GITHUB_EVENT_NAME} | ${GITHUB_REF##*/}, but the ${{ job.status }} rendered correctly as completed/failed.. ,
Can somebody explain this behaviour and any workarounds for this issue.