POST/app/installations/{installation_id}/access_tokens

Create an installation access token for an app

Creates an installation access token that enables a GitHub App to make authenticated API requests for the app's installation on an organization or individual account. Installation tokens expire one hour from the time you create them. Using an expired token produces a status code of 401 - Unauthorized, and requires creating a new installation token. By default the installation token has access to all repositories that the installation can access.

[!NOTE] Starting April 27, 2026, GitHub began a staged rollout of a stateless format (ghs_APPID_JWT) to all newly minted GitHub App installation tokens, making them more performant and improving the reliability of our API surface. If your application expects or relies on installation tokens being exactly 40 characters long, it may not handle this new token format correctly. You can now validate your apps and workflows using a temporary request header that lets you enable the token format on demand. For more information about the temporary header, see the GitHub blog.

Optionally, you can use the repositories or repository_ids body parameters to specify individual repositories that the installation access token can access. If you don't use repositories or repository_ids to grant access to specific repositories, the installation access token will have access to all repositories that the installation was granted access to. The installation access token cannot be granted access to repositories that the installation was not granted access to. Up to 500 repositories can be listed in this manner.

Optionally, use the permissions body parameter to specify the permissions that the installation access token should have. If permissions is not specified, the installation access token will have all of the permissions that were granted to the app. The installation access token cannot be granted permissions that the app was not granted.

You must use a JWT to access this endpoint.

RetriesRetries up to 2×, 500ms backoff, 30s timeout.

1 parameter · 3 body fields

installation_idintegerrequired

The unique identifier of the installation.

repositoriesarray<string>optional

List of repository names that the token should have access to

repository_idsarray<integer>optional

List of repository IDs that the token should have access to

permissionsobjectoptional

The permissions granted to the fine-grained access token.

5 status codes

201Response

tokenstringrequired

expires_atstringrequired

permissionsobjectoptional

The permissions granted to the fine-grained access token.

repository_selectionstringoptional

Allowed:allselected

repositoriesarray<Repository>optional

single_filestringoptional

has_multiple_single_filesbooleanoptional

single_file_pathsarray<string>optional

401Requires authentication

messagestringoptional

documentation_urlstringoptional

urlstringoptional

statusstringoptional

403Forbidden

messagestringoptional

documentation_urlstringoptional

urlstringoptional

statusstringoptional

404Resource not found

messagestringoptional

documentation_urlstringoptional

urlstringoptional

statusstringoptional

422Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

messagestringrequired

documentation_urlstringrequired

errorsarray<object>optional

Error handling

A 401 is returned: Requires authentication. A 403 is returned: Forbidden. A 404 is returned: Resource not found. A 422 is returned: Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

import { Client } from "acme-sdk";

const client = new Client({
  baseUrl: "https://api.acme.com",
  auth: { bearer: process.env.API_TOKEN },
  retry: {
    maxAttempts: 3,
    retryOn: [
      408,
      425,
      429,
      500,
      502,
      503,
      504,
    ],
    backoffMs: 500,
    maxBackoffMs: 8000,
  },
  timeoutMs: 30000,
});

const result = await client.accessTokens.create({
  installationId: "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  repositories: "hello-world",
  repositoryIds: "hello-world",
  permissions: {},
});

{
  "token": "ghs_16C7e42F292c6912E7710c838347Ae178B4a",
  "expires_at": "2016-07-11T22:14:10Z",
  "permissions": {
    "issues": "write",
    "contents": "read"
  },
  "repository_selection": "selected",
  "repositories": [
    {
      "id": 1296269,
      "node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnkxMjk2MjY5",
      "name": "Hello-World",
      "full_name": "octocat/Hello-World",
      "owner": {
        "login": "octocat",
        "id": 1,
        "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
        "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
        "gravatar_id": "",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
        "type": "User",
        "site_admin": false
      },
      "private": false,
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
      "description": "This your first repo!",
      "fork": false,
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World",
      "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/{archive_format}{/ref}",
      "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/assignees{/user}",
      "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/blobs{/sha}",
      "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/branches{/branch}",
      "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/collaborators{/collaborator}",
      "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/comments{/number}",
      "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/commits{/sha}",
      "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/compare/{base}...{head}",
      "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contents/{+path}",
      "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/contributors",
      "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/deployments",
      "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/downloads",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/events",
      "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/forks",
      "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/commits{/sha}",
      "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/refs{/sha}",
      "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/tags{/sha}",
      "git_url": "git:github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/comments{/number}",
      "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues/events{/number}",
      "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/issues{/number}",
      "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/keys{/key_id}",
      "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/labels{/name}",
      "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/languages",
      "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/merges",
      "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/milestones{/number}",
      "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
      "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/pulls{/number}",
      "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/releases{/id}",
      "ssh_url": "git@github.com:octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/stargazers",
      "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/statuses/{sha}",
      "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscribers",
      "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/subscription",
      "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/tags",
      "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/teams",
      "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/git/trees{/sha}",
      "clone_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World.git",
      "mirror_url": "git:git.example.com/octocat/Hello-World",
      "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/Hello-World/hooks",
      "svn_url": "https://svn.github.com/octocat/Hello-World",
      "homepage": "https://github.com",
      "language": null,
      "forks_count": 9,
      "stargazers_count": 80,
      "watchers_count": 80,
      "size": 108,
      "default_branch": "master",
      "open_issues_count": 0,
      "is_template": true,
      "topics": [
        "octocat",
        "atom",
        "electron",
        "api"
      ],
      "has_issues": true,
      "has_projects": true,
      "has_wiki": true,
      "has_pages": false,
      "has_downloads": true,
      "archived": false,
      "disabled": false,
      "visibility": "public",
      "pushed_at": "2011-01-26T19:06:43Z",
      "created_at": "2011-01-26T19:01:12Z",
      "updated_at": "2011-01-26T19:14:43Z",
      "permissions": {
        "admin": false,
        "push": false,
        "pull": true
      },
      "allow_rebase_merge": true,
      "template_repository": null,
      "temp_clone_token": "ABTLWHOULUVAXGTRYU7OC2876QJ2O",
      "allow_squash_merge": true,
      "allow_auto_merge": false,
      "delete_branch_on_merge": true,
      "allow_merge_commit": true,
      "subscribers_count": 42,
      "network_count": 0,
      "license": {
        "key": "mit",
        "name": "MIT License",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/licenses/mit",
        "spdx_id": "MIT",
        "node_id": "MDc6TGljZW5zZW1pdA==",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/licenses/mit"
      },
      "forks": 1,
      "open_issues": 1,
      "watchers": 1
    }
  ]
}

Request

Response

Errors