GitHub REST API returns 403 Forbidden despite using a Personal Access Token

[AbdullahNaseemAbbasi]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

API

Body

Hello everyone,

I'm having trouble accessing the GitHub REST API using a Personal Access Token (PAT). Authentication appears to succeed, but some API endpoints consistently return a 403 Forbidden response.

Environment
GitHub REST API
Personal Access Token (Fine-grained)
Windows 11
Postman and cURL
Problem

When I send a request such as:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer "
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json"
https://api.github.com/repos//

I receive a response similar to:

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden

Other endpoints, such as retrieving my user profile, work correctly, but requests involving repositories fail.

What I've tried
Verified that the token is active and has not expired.
Regenerated the Personal Access Token.
Confirmed that the repository exists.
Tested the request using both Postman and cURL.
Checked that I'm using the correct API endpoint.

[daniyal-debug]

A 403 Forbidden response usually indicates that your request is authenticated, but the token doesn't have permission to perform the requested action.

Here are a few things to check:

Verify that your Personal Access Token has the required repository permissions. Fine-grained PATs only have access to the repositories and permissions you explicitly grant.
If the repository belongs to an organization, confirm that the organization allows your token to access that repository. Some organizations have policies that restrict API access or require approval for fine-grained tokens.
Make sure you're requesting the correct endpoint and using the appropriate HTTP method.
Check the response headers and body for additional details, as GitHub often includes information explaining why access was denied.
If you're making a large number of requests, verify that you haven't exceeded the API rate limit.

If you're still unable to determine the cause, sharing the endpoint you're calling (with any sensitive information removed), the response body, and the relevant token permissions would help the community identify the specific issue.