Security
Personal access token
Quick answer
A personal access token is a long-lived credential tied to an individual user account.
Also: PAT
A personal access token is a long-lived credential tied to an individual user account.
Why it matters
PATs in CI are a liability: they carry a human's full access, they outlive the person's need for them, and they break when that person leaves. Use a GitHub App or OIDC instead.
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Related
Audit logAn audit log is an append-only record of configuration and access changes, capturing who did what, when, and from where.Data residencyData residency is the requirement that data be stored and processed within a defined geographic boundary.GitHub AppA GitHub App is an integration that authenticates as itself with scoped, short-lived installation tokens rather than as a user.GITHUB_TOKENGITHUB_TOKEN is the automatically generated, short-lived token available to every workflow run for authenticating to the GitHub API.