[patchback]

This is a backport of PR #13132 as merged into main (f7b4249).

SUMMARY

github_deploy_key with state: absent deleted an existing deploy key even in check mode. The check-mode block in main() only handled state: present, so for state: absent execution fell through to remove_existing_key() and sent the DELETE request.

In check mode with state: absent, the module now only looks up the key and reports changed: true if it exists (with its id) or changed: false if it doesn't, without calling the API's DELETE endpoint.

Fixes #12348

Assisted-by: Grok Bot (AI assistant); I reviewed and tested the change.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bugfix Pull Request

COMPONENT NAME

github_deploy_key

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Added tests/unit/plugins/modules/test_github_deploy_key.py (mocks fetch_url):

• check mode + absent + existing key: changed=True, only a GET is sent (this test fails on main because a DELETE is issued)
• check mode + absent + missing key: changed=False, no DELETE
• normal mode + absent + existing key: still deletes /keys/<id>

ansible-test units --python 3.13 tests/unit/plugins/modules/test_github_deploy_key.py  -> 3 passed
ansible-test sanity --test compile/pep8/validate-modules (touched files) -> OK
ruff check / ruff format --check (ruff-modules.toml / ruff-plugins.toml) -> OK

[ansibullbot]

cc @bincyber @stpierre
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