How can I overcome Node dependency errors when using the Kaniko container in GitHub Actions?

I'm trying to build and push an image to ACR using GitHub Actions on self-hosted runners in AKS. Since Docker isn’t ideal in a Kubernetes context, I turned to Kaniko. According to the official docs (https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/kaniko?tab=readme-ov-file#known-issues), Kaniko must run in its official container image. However, that image only includes minimal packages for Kaniko, missing many tools needed in a full CI pipeline.

I split my workflow into two jobs. The first job runs all preparatory steps (including generating files and folders) and then uploads the workspace with the upload-artifact action. The second job uses the official Kaniko image to download the artifact and build/push the image. Here’s the workflow:

YAMLCopied
name: CI

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      tag:
        required: true
        type: string
        description: 'The tag name'
jobs:
  previous-CI:
    runs-on: arc-runners-set
    permissions:
      contents: write
      packages: write
      id-token: write
    steps:
      ... (previous steps that generate the files and folders needed to build the image) ...

      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: ci_workspace
          path: .
          include-hidden-files: true

  build-and-push-image:
    needs: previous-CI:
    runs-on: arc-runners-set
    container:
      image: gcr.io/kaniko-project/executor:v1.23.0-debug
    permissions:
      contents: read  # read the repository
    steps:
      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with: 
          name: ci_files
      - name: Build and push image to ACR
        run: |
          cat <<EOF > /kaniko/.docker/config.json
          { "credHelpers": { "my-acr.acurecr.io": "acr-env" } }
          EOF

          /kaniko/executor --dockerfile="./folderD/Dockerfile" \
            --context="${{ github.repositoryUrl }}#${{ github.ref }}#${{ github.sha }}"  \
            --destination="my-acr.acurecr.io/${{ github.event.repository.name }}:${{ inputs.tag }}" \
            ${{ env.KANIKO_CACHE_ARGS }}
        env:
          AZURE_CLIENT_ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
          AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
          AZURE_TENANT_ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
          GIT_USERNAME: ${{ github.actor }}
          GIT_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      KANIKO_CACHE_ARGS: "--push-retry 5 --no-push-cache --cleanup"

The problem is that when the second job tries to download the artifact, I get the following error:

BASHCopied
Run actions/download-artifact@v4
Run '/home/runner/k8s/index.js'
env: can't execute '/__e/node20/bin/node': No such file or directory
Error: Error: failed to run script step: command terminated with non-zero exit code: error executing command [sh -e /__w/_temp/963a62d0-dc83-11ef-aa32-5de5ef08af87.sh], exit code 127
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.
Error: Executing the custom container implementation failed. Please contact your self hosted runner administrator.

I also encountered a similar error when trying to use the setup-node action:

BASHCopied
Run actions/setup-node@v4
Run '/home/runner/k8s/index.js'
env: can't execute '/__e/node20/bin/node': No such file or directory
Error: Error: failed to run script step: command terminated with non-zero exit code: error executing command [sh -e /__w/_temp/2a593930-dc8b-11ef-8072-e38ac080b9d3.sh], exit code 127
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.
Error: Executing the custom container implementation failed. Please contact your self hosted runner administrator.

It appears that the Kaniko image’s minimal environment is missing Node, which the download-artifact (and setup-node) actions require. I’m wondering if I’m overlooking any alternative solutions or if this is simply the limitation of using the official Kaniko container. Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated.