Personal access token (PAT)
A personal access token, or PAT, is a credential you generate from your account settings on a service like GitHub, scoped to specific permissions and given its own expiry, separate from your login password. It is designed to be used by tools and scripts acting on your behalf.
Why it matters
Because a PAT can be limited to, say, read-only access to one repository, a leaked PAT is far less damaging than a leaked password, which usually grants full account access.
Should a PAT ever be shared between two projects?
You can reuse one, but a leak then affects every project using it. Separate tokens per project limit the blast radius.
Do PATs expire automatically?
Many services let you set an expiry date when you create one, and some default to a short lifetime.
Related
Looking for a different way to manage your keys? See the best Claude Code API key manager alternatives, or browse every term in the glossary.