Generating a Personal Access Token in GitHub

Using a Personal Access Token or PAT is the standard way to authenticate when using the command line or the API. GitHub now offers two types: Fine-grained (recommended) and Classic.

1. Navigate to Developer Settings\

1. Log in to your GitHub account.

2. Click your profile photo in the top-right corner and select Settings.

3. In the left-hand sidebar, scroll all the way to the bottom and click Developer settings.

2. Choose Your Token Type

On the left sidebar, click Personal access tokens. You will see two options:

Option A: Fine-grained tokens (Recommended)

Best for specific projects. You can limit access to specific repositories.

1. Click Fine-grained tokens -> Generate new token.

2. Name & Expiration: Give it a name and set an expiry (default is 30 days).

3. Resource owner: Select your account (or an organization).

4. Repository access: Choose “Only select repositories” to keep things secure.

5. Permissions: Under Repository permissions, find what you need. (For basic git actions like push/pull, set Contents to “Read and write”).

6. Click Generate token.

Option B: Tokens (classic)

Best for general use or older tools that don’t support fine-grained permissions.

1. Click Tokens (classic) -> Generate new token (classic).

2. Note: Enter a description (e.g., “Home PC Access”).

3. Expiration: Select a duration.

4. Scopes: For general command-line use, check the repo box (this grants full control of private and public repositories).

5. Click Generate token.

---

3. Save Your Token

[!IMPORTANT] Copy the token immediately. GitHub will never show it to you again. If you lose it, you’ll have to delete it and create a new one.

How to use it

When your terminal (or VS Code) asks for your GitHub password, paste the token instead of your actual password.

Pro-tip: If you find yourself pasting this constantly, you can save it globally using: git config --global credential.helper store