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Using a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) is the most reliable way to bypass GitHub’s API rate limits. While the updater supports public proxies, a token provides a private and significantly higher limit (5,000 requests per hour).

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Why use a token?

  • Reliability: You are not shared with other users on a public proxy.
  • Speed: No extra hops through proxy servers.
  • Privacy: Your update checks are performed directly between your machine and GitHub.

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Creating a token

  1. Go to your GitHub Token Settings.
  2. Click Generate new token (classic).
  3. Give it a descriptive name like fp-appimage-updater.
  4. No scopes are required. For public repositories, the token only needs the default “public access” to read release metadata. Do not check any boxes unless you are updating from private repositories.
  5. Click Generate token and copy it immediately.

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Configuration methods

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1. Environment Variable (Most Private)

The GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable is the most secure way because it never touches your disk in plain text if managed correctly (e.g., via a secret manager or encrypted shell profile).
Create a secrets.yml file. This allows you to keep your credentials separate from your config.yml, making it easy to exclude from Git or encrypt using tools like sops, age, or git-crypt. File: ~/.config/fp-appimage-updater/secrets.yml

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3. Global Configuration

You can add it to config.yml, but this is discouraged if you share your dotfiles publicly.

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Best Practices

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Use a dedicated token

Do not reuse your primary development token. Create a “fine-grained” or “classic” token specifically for this tool with minimal permissions.

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Security isolation

fp-appimage-updater is designed with security in mind:
  • No Proxy Leaks: The token is never sent to the configured github_proxy_prefix URLs. It is only sent to api.github.com.
  • In-Memory Only: When loaded from config.yml or secrets.yml, the token is stored in memory and is never written back to disk by the application.

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Dotfile encryption

If you store your configuration in a public repository, use secrets.yml and add it to your .gitignore, or use an encryption tool:
  • sops: Encrypt secrets.yml and decrypt it only when needed.
  • Environment variables: Use a password manager CLI (like bw, op, or lpass) to inject the token:
Last modified on April 17, 2026