Creating a personal access token

About personal access tokens

Personal access token are an alternative to using passwords for authentication to GitHub when using the GitHub API or the command line. Personal access tokens are intended to access GitHub resources on behalf of yourself. To access resources on behalf of an organization, or for long-lived integrations, you should use a GitHub App. For more information, see "About apps."

GitHub currently supports two types of personal access tokens: fine-grained personal access tokens and personal access tokens (classic). GitHub recommends that you use fine-grained personal access tokens instead of personal access tokens (classic) whenever possible. Fine-grained personal access tokens have several security advantages over personal access tokens (classic):

• Each token can only access resources owned by a single user or organization.
• Each token can only access specific repositories.
• Each token is granted specific permissions, which offer more control than the scopes granted to personal access tokens (classic).
• Each token must have an expiration date.
• Organization owners can require approval for any fine-grained personal access tokens that can access resources in the organization.

Additionally, organization owners can restrict the access of personal access token (classic) to their organization.

As a security precaution, GitHub automatically removes personal access tokens that haven't been used in a year. To provide additional security, we highly recommend adding an expiration to your personal access tokens.

Creating a fine-grained personal access token

1. Verify your email address, if it hasn't been verified yet.

2. 在任何页面的右上角，单击个人资料照片，然后单击“设置”。

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Developer settings.

4. In the left sidebar, under Personal access tokens, click Fine-grained tokens.

5. Click Generate new token.

6. Optionally, under Token name, enter a name for the token.

7. Under Expiration, select an expiration for the token.

8. Optionally, under Description, add a note to describe the purpose of the token.

9. Under Resource owner, select a resource owner. The token will only be able to access resources owned by the selected resource owner. Organizations that you are a member of will not appear unless the organization opted in to fine-grained personal access tokens. For more information, see "Setting a personal access token policy for your organization."

10. Optionally, if the resource owner is an organization that requires approval for fine-grained personal access tokens, below the resource owner, in the box, enter a justification for the request.

11. Under Repository access, select which repositories you want the token to access. You should choose the minimal repository access that meets your needs. Tokens always include read-only access to all public repositories on GitHub.

12. If you selected Only select repositories in the previous step, under the Selected repositories dropdown, select the repositories that you want the token to access.

13. Under Permissions, select which permissions to grant the token. Depending on which resource owner and which repository access you specified, there are repository, organization, and account permissions. You should choose the minimal permissions necessary for your needs. For more information about what permissions are required for each REST API operation, see "Permissions required for fine-grained personal access tokens."

14. Click Generate token.

If you selected an organization as the resource owner and the organization requires approval for fine-grained personal access tokens, then your token will be marked as pending until it is reviewed by an organization administrator. Your token will only be able to read public resources until it is approved. If you are an owner of the organization, your request is automatically approved. For more information, see "Reviewing and revoking personal access tokens in your organization".

Creating a personal access token (classic)

1. Verify your email address, if it hasn't been verified yet.

2. 在任何页面的右上角，单击个人资料照片，然后单击“设置”。

   

3. In the left sidebar, click Developer settings.

4. In the left sidebar, under Personal access tokens, click Tokens (classic).

5. Select Generate new token, then click Generate new token (classic).

6. Give your token a descriptive name.

7. To give your token an expiration, select the Expiration drop-down menu, then click a default or use the calendar picker.

8. Select the scopes you'd like to grant this token. To use your token to access repositories from the command line, select repo. A token with no assigned scopes can only access public information. For more information, see "Available scopes".

   

9. Click Generate token.

   

10. To use your token to access resources owned by an organization that uses SAML single sign-on, authorize the token. For more information, see "Authorizing a personal access token for use with SAML single sign-on" in the GitHub Enterprise Cloud documentation.

Using a token on the command line

如果您有令牌，则可以在通过 HTTPS 执行 Git 操作时输入令牌，而不是密码。

例如，在命令行中输入以下内容：

$ git clone https://github.com/username/repo.git
Username: your_username
Password: your_token

Personal access tokens can only be used for HTTPS Git operations. If your repository uses an SSH remote URL, you will need to switch the remote from SSH to HTTPS.

If you are not prompted for your username and password, your credentials may be cached on your computer. You can update your credentials in the Keychain to replace your old password with the token.

Instead of manually entering your personal access token for every HTTPS Git operation, you can cache your personal access token with a Git client. Git will temporarily store your credentials in memory until an expiry interval has passed. You can also store the token in a plain text file that Git can read before every request. For more information, see "Caching your GitHub credentials in Git."

Further reading

• "About authentication to GitHub"
• "Token expiration and revocation"