Token Generation Action

GitHub provides the official actions/create-github-app-token action for generating short-lived tokens from your Core App credentials.

Basic Usage

jobs:
  example:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Generate Core App Token
        id: app_token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
        with:
          app-id: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}

Output: The action generates a token accessible via ${{ steps.app_token.outputs.token }}

Organization-Scoped Tokens

To generate tokens with organization-wide access:

- name: Generate Org-Scoped Token
  id: app_token
  uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
  with:
    app-id: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_ID }}
    private-key: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    owner: your-org  # Critical: enables org-scoped access

Critical Parameter:

• owner - MUST be specified for organization-level operations
• Without owner, tokens are scoped only to the current repository
• Value must match your GitHub organization name exactly

Repository-Scoped Tokens

For operations limited to specific repositories:

- name: Generate Repo-Scoped Token
  id: app_token
  uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
  with:
    app-id: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_ID }}
    private-key: ${{ secrets.CORE_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    repositories: |
      repo1
      repo2
      repo3

Use case: Operating on specific repositories without org-wide access