Add user-minted short-lived repo-scoped access tokens for AI agents

[corby]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Product Feedback

💬 Feature/Topic Area

API

Body

GitHub should add a way for an authenticated user to mint a short-lived, revokable, least-privilege token for a specific repository without requiring a personal access token or GitHub App installation.

Problem

I want to hand an AI coding agent temporary access to one repository. The agent may need to read code, inspect issues, comment, or open a pull request, but I do not want to give it a long-lived credential or anything with broad account-level authority.

Today the options are not adequate:

1. Personal access tokens are not acceptable.

   • They are commonly long-lived.
   • Many organizations disable or restrict them.
   • Even fine-grained PATs are still PATs and do not fit short-lived delegation workflows.

2. GitHub App installation tokens are closer technically.

   • They are short-lived, roughly one hour.
   • They are revokable by removing the installation or permissions.
   • But they require creating/installing a GitHub App, often at the organization or repository admin level.
   • This is too heavy for a user who simply wants to delegate temporary access to an AI tool.

3. GitHub Actions GITHUB_TOKEN is not enough.

   • It is short-lived and repo-scoped.
   • But it only exists inside Actions workflows, not for an external AI agent acting on behalf of a user.

Requested feature

Add a first-class flow to mint a user-owned ephemeral repository token.

Suggested behavior

• Token belongs to the authenticated user.
• Token can be scoped to exactly one repository or selected repositories.
• Token lifetime is short: 15, 30, or 60 minutes.
• Token is revokable immediately from the UI and API.
• Token has explicit granular permissions:
  • read repository contents
  • read issues
  • read pull requests
  • comment on issues/PRs
  • create branch
  • open pull request
  • push only to a constrained branch namespace, e.g. agent/*
• Token cannot delete repositories, change settings, manage secrets, alter Actions configuration, change branch protection, or force-push protected branches unless explicitly granted.
• Token activity is clearly attributed and auditable as delegated user activity, ideally with an agent/application label.
• Organizations can allow, deny, or constrain this feature by policy.

Primary use case

A developer wants to give an AI coding agent safe temporary access to a private repository without giving it a PAT and without requiring org-level GitHub App installation.

This would provide a safer alternative to users copying broad credentials into AI tools and would align better with least-privilege, short-lived credential practices.

[github-actions[bot]]

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