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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2023-01-18. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Token expiration and revocation

Your tokens can expire and can also be revoked by you, applications you have authorized, and GitHub Enterprise Server itself.

When a token has expired or has been revoked, it can no longer be used to authenticate Git and API requests. It is not possible to restore an expired or revoked token, you or the application will need to create a new token.

This article explains the possible reasons your GitHub Enterprise Server token might be revoked or expire.

Note: When a personal access token or OAuth token expires or is revoked, you may see an oauth_authorization.destroy action in your security log. For more information, see "Reviewing your security log."

Token revoked after reaching its expiration date

When you create a personal access token, we recommend that you set an expiration for your token. Upon reaching your token's expiration date, the token is automatically revoked. For more information, see "Creating a personal access token."

Token revoked by the user

You can revoke your authorization of a GitHub App or OAuth App from your account settings which will revoke any tokens associated with the app. For more information, see "Reviewing your authorized integrations" and "Reviewing your authorized applications (OAuth)."

Once an authorization is revoked, any tokens associated with the authorization will be revoked as well. To re-authorize an application, follow the instructions from the third-party application or website to connect your account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance again.

Token revoked by the OAuth App

The owner of an OAuth App can revoke an account's authorization of their app, this will also revoke any tokens associated with the authorization. For more information about revoking authorizations of your OAuth app, see "Delete an app authorization."

OAuth App owners can also revoke individual tokens associated with an authorization. For more information about revoking individual tokens for your OAuth app, see "Delete an app token".

Token revoked due to excess of tokens for an OAuth App with the same scope

There is a limit of ten tokens that are issued per user/application/scope combination. If an application creates more than 10 tokens for the same user and the same scopes, the oldest tokens with the same user/application/scope combination will be revoked.

User token revoked due to GitHub App configuration

User-to-server tokens created by a GitHub App will expire after eight hours by default. Owners of GitHub Apps can configure their apps so that user-to-server tokens do not expire. For more information about changing how your GitHub App's user-to-server tokens behave, see "Activating optional features for apps."