> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hoppscotch.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Using auth tokens

> Authenticate API requests in Hoppscotch using bearer tokens. Follow a step-by-step tutorial with the GitHub REST API as an example.

In this section, we'll look at passing Authorization and Authentication information in our requests, by accessing the [GitHub REST API](https://docs.github.com/en/rest).

Let's try making a `GET` request to the URL `https://api.github.com/user`.

You'll get the following response:

```json theme={null}
{
  "message": "Requires authentication",
  "documentation_url": "https://docs.github.com/rest/reference/users#get-the-authenticated-user"
}
```

This is because you are not authorized to access the API and to gain access you would need to authenticate yourself. We use tokens to authenticate a user and to do so we first need to generate an access token from GitHub.

## Generating access token

To get access to the GitHub API, you first need to generate a personal access token. For our demonstration, we will generate one granting access to public repositories.

1. Login to the GitHub account.
2. Go to your [personal access tokens page](https://github.com/settings/tokens) and click on "**Generate new token**".
3. Select tokens (classic).
4. Specify the note as "**Hoppscotch API**" so that you can remember why you created it.
5. Under the "Select scopes" section only check `public_repo`.
6. Scroll down and click on "**Generate token**".
7. You just generated your access token, now copy the token to your clipboard.

## Storing auth token in a variable

<Tip>It is a recommended safe practice to have your auth details in environment variables rather than inputting them directly to the authorization tab.</Tip>

1. Click on the "**Global**" environment to add a variable.
2. Create a variable called `token` and paste the token from GitHub as its value.
3. Now open the Authorization tab and select `Bearer` from the dropdown list.
4. Input the token as shown below, make sure that you reference the token in variable format, i.e. `<<token>>`.
5. Click on "**Send**".

You should now see the response including details about your GitHub account.