• Create a personal access token
  • Prefill personal access token name and scopes
• Revoke a personal access token
• View the last time a token was used
• Personal access token scopes
• When personal access tokens expire
• Create a personal access token programmatically
• Revoke a personal access token programmatically
• Clone repository using personal access token
• Troubleshooting
  • Unrevoke a personal access token
• Alternatives to personal access tokens

Personal access tokens

Personal access tokens can be an alternative to OAuth2 and used to:

• Authenticate with the GitLab API.
• Authenticate with Git using HTTP Basic Authentication.

In both cases, you authenticate with a personal access token in place of your password.

Personal access tokens are:

• Required when two-factor authentication (2FA) is enabled.
• Used with a GitLab username to authenticate with GitLab features that require usernames. For example, GitLab-managed Terraform state backend and Docker container registry,
• Similar to project access tokens and group access tokens, but are attached to a user rather than a project or group.

For examples of how you can use a personal access token to authenticate with the API, see the API documentation.

Alternately, GitLab administrators can use the API to create impersonation tokens. Use impersonation tokens to automate authentication as a specific user.

Create a personal access token

You can create as many personal access tokens as you like.

1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar.
2. Select Edit profile.
3. On the left sidebar, select Access Tokens.
4. Enter a name and optional expiry date for the token.
5. Select the desired scopes.
6. Select Create personal access token.

Save the personal access token somewhere safe. After you leave the page, you no longer have access to the token.

Prefill personal access token name and scopes

You can link directly to the Personal Access Token page and have the form prefilled with a name and list of scopes. To do this, you can append a name parameter and a list of comma-separated scopes to the URL. For example:

https://gitlab.example.com/-/profile/personal_access_tokens?name=Example+Access+token&scopes=api,read_user,read_registry

Revoke a personal access token

At any time, you can revoke a personal access token.

1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar.
2. Select Edit profile.
3. On the left sidebar, select Access Tokens.
4. In the Active personal access tokens area, next to the key, select Revoke.

View the last time a token was used

Token usage information is updated every 24 hours. GitLab considers a token used when the token is used to:

• Authenticate with the REST or GraphQL APIs.
• Perform a Git operation.

To view the last time a token was used:

1. In the upper-right corner, select your avatar.
2. Select Edit profile.
3. On the left sidebar, select Access Tokens.
4. In the Active personal access tokens area, next to the key, view the Last Used date.

Personal access token scopes

A personal access token can perform actions based on the assigned scopes.

When personal access tokens expire

Personal access tokens expire on the date you define, at midnight UTC.

• GitLab runs a check at 01:00 AM UTC every day to identify personal access tokens that expire in the next seven days. The owners of these tokens are notified by email.
• GitLab runs a check at 02:00 AM UTC every day to identify personal access tokens that expire on the current date. The owners of these tokens are notified by email.
• In GitLab Ultimate, administrators can limit the lifetime of access tokens.

Create a personal access token programmatically

You can create a predetermined personal access token as part of your tests or automation.

Prerequisite:

• You need sufficient access to run a Rails console session for your GitLab instance.

To create a personal access token programmatically:

1. Open a Rails console:

   sudo gitlab-rails console
   

2. Run the following commands to reference the username, the token, and the scopes.

   The token must be 20 characters long. The scopes must be valid and are visible in the source code.

   For example, to create a token that belongs to a user with username automation-bot:

   user = User.find_by_username('automation-bot')
   token = user.personal_access_tokens.create(scopes: [:read_user, :read_repository], name: 'Automation token')
   token.set_token('token-string-here123')
   token.save!
   

This code can be shortened into a single-line shell command by using the Rails runner:

sudo gitlab-rails runner "token = User.find_by_username('automation-bot').personal_access_tokens.create(scopes: [:read_user, :read_repository], name: 'Automation token'); token.set_token('token-string-here123'); token.save!"

Revoke a personal access token programmatically

You can programmatically revoke a personal access token as part of your tests or automation.

Prerequisite:

• You need sufficient access to run a Rails console session for your GitLab instance.

To revoke a token programmatically:

1. Open a Rails console:

   sudo gitlab-rails console
   

2. To revoke a token of token-string-here123, run the following commands:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123')
   token.revoke!
   

This code can be shortened into a single-line shell command using the Rails runner:

sudo gitlab-rails runner "PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123').revoke!"

Clone repository using personal access token

To clone a repository when SSH is disabled, clone it using a personal access token by running the following command:

git clone https://<username>:<personal_token>@gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git

This method saves your personal access token in your bash history. To avoid this, run the following command:

git clone https://<username>@gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git

When asked for your password for https://gitlab.com, enter your personal access token.

The username in the clone command:

• Can be any string value.
• Must not be an empty string.

Remember this if you set up an automation pipeline that depends on authentication.

Troubleshooting

Unrevoke a personal access token

If a personal access token is revoked accidentally by any method, administrators can unrevoke that token.

1. Open a Rails console.

2. Unrevoke the token:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('<token_string>')
   token.update!(revoked:false)
   

   For example, to unrevoke a token of token-string-here123:

   token = PersonalAccessToken.find_by_token('token-string-here123')
   token.update!(revoked:false)
   

Alternatives to personal access tokens

For Git over HTTPS, an alternative to personal access tokens is Git Credential Manager, which securely authenticates using OAuth.