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GitHub authentication

Zide connects to GitHub to provide issue tracking, pull requests, releases, actions, and other features.

You can authenticate Zide with OAuth, which is recommended, or a personal access token.

Authenticate with OAuth

To authenticate Zide with OAuth, complete the following steps.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. In Settings, click Git Accounts.
  3. In Git Accounts, click Connect account.
  4. In the Git hosting accounts dialog, click GitHub.
  5. Optional: For a GitHub Enterprise Server instance, click Advanced Options in the Connect to GitHub dialog, select Self-hosted instance, and enter the base URL of your instance. When you leave the field, Zide gets a new one-time code for that instance. Do this before you copy the code.
  6. In the Connect to GitHub dialog, copy the one-time code.
  7. Click Open in browser to open the GitHub verification page.
  8. In GitHub, click Continue.
  9. Enter the copied code, then click Continue.
  10. Click Authorize Zide-Software.
  11. In Zide, click Done. Zide is now connected to your GitHub account.

Authenticate Zide with a personal access token

To authenticate Zide with a personal access token, complete the following steps.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. In Settings, click Git Accounts.
  3. In Git Accounts, click Connect account.
  4. In the Connect a Git hosting account dialog, click GitHub.
  5. In the Connect to GitHub dialog, click Use Personal Access Token instead.
  6. In the Connect to GitHub with a Personal Access Token dialog, enter the base URL of your GitHub instance in the Instance URL field. The default URL is github.com.
  7. Enter your personal access token in the Personal Access Token field. To generate a personal access token, see the Creating a personal access token (classic) GitHub documentation.
  8. Click Connect. When the dialog shows Account connected, click Done.

Zide checks that GitHub accepts the token before it saves the account. It does not check the token’s scopes. Give the token the scopes that the dialog lists (repo, read:user, and project), or features that need them fail later.

GitHub Enterprise Server and more than one account

Each GitHub account in Zide belongs to one GitHub instance: GitHub.com or the GitHub Enterprise Server URL you entered when you connected it. Zide sends a repository’s GitHub requests, including uploads and downloads, to the instance of the account that the repository uses. An account’s token goes only to that instance. When GitHub redirects a log or artifact download to a storage server, Zide downloads the file from there without the token.

A project uses the account that matches its remote. When more than one connected account matches, click DevOps > Configure… to choose the account for each remote, and which remote each DevOps feature uses. Issues, pull requests, Actions, and releases then use that remote’s account, even when another project’s account is in use elsewhere in Zide.

If the account a feature uses is no longer connected, the feature cannot load its GitHub data. Connect the account again in Git Accounts, or choose another account in DevOps > Configure….

Tokens

Tokens are stored securely in the native keychain of the following operating systems:

  • Windows: Data Protection API
  • macOS: Keychain
  • Linux: Secret Service (GNOME Keyring, KWallet, KeePassXC, or another libsecret provider)

Account metadata such as the username, avatar URL, and auth method is stored in Zide’s local SQLite database. Tokens remain in the operating system’s secure credential store.

OAuth tokens with expiration dates are refreshed automatically in the background. Zide does not renew personal access tokens. When a token expires or is revoked on GitHub, create a new token and connect the account again in Git Accounts.