A long-lived access key left exposed on an open laptop in a dark ops room

Don't paste your GitHub key in chat

Companion to The last click is still yours and the agent production system series. Words I use below Agent โ€” a program that writes code for you in a chat session Pull request (PR) โ€” a proposed change waiting for review; on GitHub it has its own page, with a button to accept it Merge โ€” accepting that proposed change so it becomes part of the main project Personal login โ€” you, signed in as yourself; when you type commands, GitHub sees your name GitHub App โ€” a robot you install on a GitHub project so it can click buttons as itself โ€” not as you; it can approve, and it can merge Short-lived token โ€” a temporary key the robot gets to prove it may click; it dies in about an hour, and after that it is junk PAT (personal access token) โ€” a long-lived key tied to you; if it leaks into a chat log, it keeps working until someone turns it off Broker โ€” a small program that hands out a short-lived token when the rules say yes; the agent asks, the broker decides, and the agent does not invent a key Automatic tests โ€” programs that run by themselves when you propose a change; green means they passed Those nine words are the toolkit. Now the point. ...

August 18, 2026 ยท Dave Voyles