If GitHub greeted you with the cheerful notification "support for password authentication was removed" you are not alone and you did not break the internet. GitHub moved on from passwords because they like things that are more secure and harder to phish. This guide walks you through the practical choices and commands to get push and pull working again using a personal access token or an SSH key without crying into your terminal.

Why this happened and which option to pick

Short answer: passwords are old news and GitHub wants tokens or keys. Choose a personal access token if you like the HTTPS workflow and want a quick fix. Choose SSH if you like one time setup and the smug joy of never typing credentials again.

• Personal access token Works with HTTPS and is familiar to most users. You can scope it to repo access and revoke it later.
• SSH key Works with SSH remotes and avoids typing credentials after setup. Best for frequent pushes and automation.

Step 1 Generate a personal access token on GitHub

Log into GitHub and go to Settings then Developer settings then Personal access tokens then Generate new token. Pick the repo scope for normal push and pull access. Copy the token now because GitHub will not show it again. Treat it like a password because technically it is one.

Use the token with Git over HTTPS

When Git prompts for your password paste the personal access token instead. If you prefer not to paste tokens every time configure a credential helper as shown below.

Step 2 Create and add an SSH key if that is your jam

If you want to use SSH run this to generate a key pair if you do not have one already

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Then add the public key to GitHub under Settings then SSH and GPG keys. Once the public key is uploaded switch your repository remote to the SSH URL and you are good to go.

Step 3 Update the repository remote

Pick the URL you want from the repository page. For HTTPS use the HTTPS URL. For SSH use the SSH URL. Then run this to update the origin remote

git remote set-url origin NEW_REMOTE

Replace NEW_REMOTE with the actual URL shown on GitHub. This step is the tiny surgical change that fixes most authentication failures.

Step 4 Configure a credential helper to stop prompts

If you chose a personal access token and you do not want to paste it forever configure a credential helper. For example to save credentials on disk run

git config --global credential.helper store

Or to cache them temporarily run

git config --global credential.helper cache

Pick store for convenience and cache for a safer short term option. Remember that store writes credentials in plain text to your home directory so only use that on machines you trust.

Step 5 Test push and pull

Now run a push or a pull to confirm everything is working

git push origin main
git pull

If authentication still fails double check that the token has the right scopes or that your SSH public key is actually attached to the GitHub account you used. Also verify the remote URL matches the method you configured.

Quick troubleshooting checklist

• Wrong remote URL means Git will try the wrong method. Check with git remote -v
• Token missing repo scope will block pushes and pulls. Regenerate with the right scopes if needed
• SSH agent not loaded will still ask for a password for the key. Use ssh-add if needed
• Credential helper mismatch can cause surprises. Inspect global config with git config --global --list

Recap

Pick personal access token for a quick HTTPS fix or set up SSH for long term convenience. Update the remote URL, configure a credential helper if you do not want to type credentials forever, and test with a push and pull. You will stop seeing the password authentication error and your repo workflows will be back to their usual chaos.