GitHub credentials

You can use these credentials to authenticate the following nodes:

• GitHub
• GitHub Trigger
• GitHub Document Loader: this node doesn't support OAuth.

Prerequisites

Create a GitHub (opens in a new tab) account.

Supported authentication methods

• API access token: Use this method with any GitHub nodes.
• OAuth2: Use this method with GitHub and GitHub Trigger nodes only; don't use with GitHub Document Loader.

Related resources

Refer to GitHub's API documentation (opens in a new tab) for more information about the service.

Using API access token

To configure this credential, you'll need a GitHub (opens in a new tab) account.

There are two steps to setting up this credential:

1. Generate a GitHub personal access token.
2. Set up the credential.

Refer to the sections below for detailed instructions.

Generate personal access token

To generate your personal access token:

1. If you haven't done so already, verify your email address with GitHub. Refer to Verifying your email address (opens in a new tab) for more information.
2. Open your GitHub profile Settings (opens in a new tab).
3. In the left navigation, select Developer settings (opens in a new tab).
4. In the left navigation, under Personal access tokens, select Tokens (classic).
5. Select Generate new token > Generate new token (classic).
6. Enter a descriptive name for your token in the Note field, like n8n integration.
7. Select the Expiration you'd like for the token, or select No expiration.
8. Select Scopes for your token. For most of the n8n GitHub nodes, add the repo scope.
   • A token without assigned scopes can only access public information.
   • Refer to
9. Select Generate token.
10. Copy the token.

Refer to Creating a personal access token (classic) (opens in a new tab) for more information. Refer to Scopes for OAuth apps (opens in a new tab) for more information on GitHub scopes.

Set up the credential

Then, in your n8n credential:

1. If you aren't using GitHub Enterprise Server, don't change the GitHub server URL.
   • If you're using GitHub Enterprise Server (opens in a new tab), update GitHub server to match the URL for your server.
2. Enter your User name as it appears in your GitHub profile.
3. Enter the Access Token you generated above.

Using OAuth2

If you're self-hosting n8n, create a new GitHub OAuth app (opens in a new tab):

1. Open your GitHub profile Settings (opens in a new tab).
2. In the left navigation, select Developer settings (opens in a new tab).
3. In the left navigation, select OAuth apps.
4. Select New OAuth App.
   • If you haven't created an app before, you may see Register a new application instead. Select it.
5. Enter an Application name, like n8n integration.
6. Enter the Homepage URL for your app's website.
7. If you'd like, add the optional Application description, which GitHub displays to end-users.
8. From n8n, copy the OAuth Redirect URL and paste it into the GitHub Authorization callback URL.
9. Select Register application.
10. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret this generates and add them to your n8n credential.

Refer to the GitHub Authorizing OAuth apps documentation (opens in a new tab) for more information on the authorization process.