Managing repositor from WSL - Authentication Failing

[rpachella]

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I have a repository I setup and in doing so I had created an access token. I've pushed updates to it from WSL on my laptop a few times now, however this time around I'm trying to push updates and for some reason it's no longer accepting my token.

I'm new to Github so maybe I'm misunderstanding what's happening, but I can't seem to get it to accept the key any longer. Do I need to regularly create a new key or should this one still work. It was setup less than 3 months ago.

If this key is still active, is there a better way to supply my key to the command line than copy and pasting it into the terminal?

Thanks for any help on how to sort this out!

[Ansh-699]

1. Do you need to regularly create a new token?

No. A token should remain valid until it expires or is manually revoked. By default, GitHub allows you to set a token to expire after a fixed period (30 days, 60 days, 90 days, or no expiration).

So if your token is less than 3 months old, it should still work unless:

It has expired.

It was revoked manually.

There’s an issue with how it’s being passed to GitHub (common on WSL/CLI setups).

You can check the status of your token:

Go to GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic).

Check that the token you created is still active and has the proper scopes (for pushing to a repo, you need at least repo).

2. Why GitHub might reject it

GitHub no longer allows password-based authentication for Git over HTTPS. Instead, you must use a personal access token (PAT) in place of your password. Common reasons it fails:

Copy/paste errors (sometimes extra spaces or line breaks).

The token is cached incorrectly by Git credentials.

The remote URL is set to HTTPS, but Git is trying to use an old cached password.

3. Better ways to supply your token

Instead of typing/pasting the token each time, you can store it securely using Git credentials. Here’s how:

Option A: Use Git Credential Manager (recommended)

On Windows/WSL, Git Credential Manager (GCM) is often installed automatically with Git.

Set it up:

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