Pipeline starting on tag and failing with "project x not found or access denied!"

When running a CICD pipeline witch remote definitions, a tag build triggers another pipeline run that fails with “Project X not found or access denied”

The repo (lets call it project Y) that triggers the build has a very limited cicd definitions file that calles the actual cicd definition via an include. This works perfectly for the initial build, either manual or via merge, but it fails after that tag is created.

A tag actually should not trigger the pipeline at all, but the workflow rules are also defined in project X and are not loaded.

Project Y .gitlab-ci.yml

            variables:
              TRIGGER_PROJECT: $CI_PROJECT_PATH
              TRIGGER_PROJECT_BRANCH: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME
            
            stages:
              - start
              - trigger
            
            start_job:
              stage: start
              script:
                - echo "Running in $TRIGGER_PROJECT, on branch $TRIGGER_PROJECT_BRANCH"
            
            include:
              - project: 'path_to_project\X'
                ref: main
                file: '/.gitlab-ci/code-repo/trigger-pipeline.yaml'

Project X trigger-pipeline.yaml

        variables:
        BUILD_TRIGGER: 'default'
        BUILD_PIPELINE_NAME: 'Pipeline build for ESB'
      
      workflow:
        name: '$BUILD_PIPELINE_NAME'
        rules:
          - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event" && $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME == "main"'
            variables:
              BUILD_TRIGGER: 'Merge to main'
              BUILD_PIPELINE_NAME: 'Pipeline build for $TRIGGER_PROJECT, merge from $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_SOURCE_BRANCH_NAME to $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME'
            when: always
          - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"'
            variables:
              BUILD_TRIGGER: 'Manual start'
              BUILD_PIPELINE_NAME: 'Manual build for $TRIGGER_PROJECT from $TRIGGER_PROJECT_BRANCH'
            when: always
          - when: never
      
      trigger:
        stage: trigger
        trigger:
          project: 'path_to_project/X'
          branch: main
          strategy: depend
          forward:
            yaml_variables: true
            pipeline_variables: true

When checking the full configuration from project Y, it resolves the dependencies perfectly

It’s just when the build is triggered by the tag that it failes. Almost like it uses other credentials.

The problem is that the pipeline starts on tag pipelines, right? Because looking at your workflow it shouldn’t run on tags. Unless you are starting manual pipeline for tag?