HACKER Q&A
📣 ethanwillis

Recommended OAuth scopes for GitHub personal access tokens


So it's that time of the month again and I'm generating a whole new set of personal access tokens for all of my dev machines.

Every time I get to this page(https://imgur.com/a/V9gGI0y) I just feel a sense of dread. It feels like the Github security team is asleep at the wheel when they let UI like this exist. Even the immediately linked documentation isn't immediately actionable (https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/building-oauth-apps/scopes-for-oauth-apps).

Ideally, there should be a set of scopes recommended by their security team for different workflows/applications/scenarios... but without that being available from what I can see... I've come here.

Hackernews what are your recommended OAuth scopes for access tokens for different scenarios? What best practices are you following to keep your account secure?


  👤 benrow Accepted Answer ✓
I agree - the UI is quite granular. Many users will land there just wanting to get a change checked in, so will likely rush the decision.

How about least privilege first, then try a build cycle and re-assess any missing permissions flagged up?