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How to Revoke and Rotate GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Other AI Coding Tokens

By Freedom251 Team · · 11 min read

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Revocation and logout are different actions. Logging out of an IDE or CLI removes a local credential, while server-side revocation invalidates the credential everywhere it can be used. If an AI coding token may have leaked, revoke the provider authorization first, remove every local copy, issue a narrowly scoped replacement, and verify that the old value fails.

What to do first when an AI coding token may be exposed

Assume a token is compromised if it appeared in a public repository, issue, build log, chat transcript, screenshot, crash report, shell history, or a lost or stolen computer. Do not wait to identify every copy before taking action: an attacker can use a valid credential while you investigate.

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  1. Revoke the server-side credential or authorization. Use the provider’s documented control or API. This stops new authentication with the old value.
  2. Preserve evidence. Record the token type, where it was found, the time you noticed it, affected repositories, and relevant IP addresses or audit events. Do not paste the secret into a ticket or a new log.
  3. Remove local copies. Delete keychain entries, configuration-file values, CI secrets, shell variables, editor settings, and cached sessions.
  4. Issue a replacement. Choose the smallest practical scope and shortest useful lifetime, then store it only in the systems that need it.
  5. Update dependents and test both values. Confirm the replacement works and that a harmless authenticated request with the old credential is rejected.
  6. Review activity. Check GitHub audit and repository logs, OAuth application grants, CI runs, and agent activity for unexpected use.

Rotating without revoking is not containment: both the old and new credentials remain usable. Revoking without replacing leaves your IDEs, automations, or agents broken.

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Credential types and the control that actually revokes them

AI coding products can hold several credentials at once. Identify the credential before deleting files, because a local logout may affect only one of them.

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Credential Typical use Where to revoke Replacement scope Old-session behavior
OAuth authorization IDE or CLI signs in through a provider account Provider account settings under authorized applications or apps Reauthorize the application; any linked local session must be signed in again Existing sessions can remain valid until their cached token expires or the service checks revocation
Personal access token (PAT) Git, API, scripts, or integrations Token management page or the provider’s credential-revocation API Create a new PAT with only required repositories, permissions, and expiration Requests fail after revocation; the old PAT cannot be restored
Bearer API key Background agents and service integrations Product dashboard or provider API, when documented Create a new key, update every integration, then invalidate the old key Depends on the provider’s cache and key-check interval
Refresh token Obtains new short-lived access tokens without another interactive login OAuth application’s authorization or session-management control Reauthorize and replace the refresh token in every client Access tokens minted before revocation may work until their own expiry
OS keychain or config copy Local persistence for a CLI or editor Delete the local item after server-side revocation Log in again or write the new secret to the approved secret store Deleting it locally does not invalidate a server credential

Do not treat an environment variable as a harmless duplicate. Most command-line tools prefer an environment value over a stored login, so an old variable can silently override a newly issued credential.

Revoke GitHub credentials safely

Use GitHub’s credential-revocation API for a leaked value

GitHub’s credential-revocation endpoint accepts classic personal access tokens beginning ghp_, fine-grained personal access tokens beginning github_pat_, OAuth app tokens beginning gho_, GitHub App user-to-server tokens beginning ghu_, and refresh tokens beginning ghr_. A request can include up to 1,000 credentials and returns HTTP 202 when GitHub accepts it for revocation.

The endpoint is intentionally unauthenticated, so a security team can revoke an exposed credential even when the reporter does not own it. Follow GitHub’s current credential-revocation API documentation for the exact request format rather than embedding a secret in a shell history or issue. A successful revocation is permanent: the credential can no longer authenticate Git or API requests, GitHub cannot reactivate it, and a new credential must be generated.

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Revoke a PAT from account settings

For a credential you can identify in your own account, open GitHub account settings, locate the personal-access-token section, and revoke the affected classic or fine-grained token. Check both kinds; deleting one does not delete the other. Replace the token in CI secret stores, deployment systems, local environment variables, scripts, and editor extensions that used it.

Check OAuth and GitHub App grants

Copilot sign-in can involve an OAuth authorization and a GitHub App authorization. In account settings, inspect both Authorized OAuth Apps and Authorized GitHub Apps. Revoke an application grant when the computer is lost, the account was shared, or you cannot account for every local session. This is broader than deleting one token: it invalidates credentials associated with that authorization and requires a fresh sign-in.

GitHub Copilot in VS Code

Revoke both authorizations

  1. Sign in to GitHub in a browser and open Settings.
  2. Open Applications and under Authorized OAuth Apps, revoke GitHub for VS Code.
  3. Open Authorized GitHub Apps and, if present, revoke the authorization for the GitHub Copilot extension.
  4. In VS Code, open the Accounts menu, sign out of the GitHub account, and close any other VS Code windows using that account.
  5. Sign in again and complete authorization. Confirm that Copilot suggestions and chat work with the replacement session.

Revoking an authorization does not necessarily stop an already running VS Code session immediately. GitHub states that VS Code may continue using Copilot for a maximum of 30 minutes after authorization is revoked. For a suspected active compromise, disconnect the machine from the network or shut it down while you perform the browser-side revocation; then sign out and reauthorize after containment.

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Lost laptop procedure

From another trusted device, revoke the GitHub for VS Code OAuth grant and the Copilot GitHub App authorization, then change the GitHub password if account compromise is possible and review active sessions and audit events. Revoke PATs and SSH keys that were present on the laptop. If the machine returns, remove cached credentials and inspect its keychain before reconnecting it. A remote IDE sign-out alone does not invalidate a GitHub authorization.

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GitHub Copilot CLI

What /logout does—and does not do

At the Copilot CLI prompt, type /logout to remove the locally stored token. GitHub explicitly notes that this does not revoke the token on GitHub. Use it for routine sign-out, but if the token may be exposed, also revoke the Copilot CLI OAuth authorization in GitHub account settings under Settings > Applications.

Find every local CLI credential

The CLI stores its OAuth token in the operating-system credential store by default:

  • macOS: Keychain Access.
  • Windows: Credential Manager.
  • Linux: libsecret, such as GNOME Keyring or KWallet.

If no usable keychain is available, it can write plaintext credentials to ~/.copilot/config.json. Treat that file as a secret: restrict its permissions, remove backups and copied archives, and do not commit it.

Before logging in again, inspect and clear the environment variables COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN, GH_TOKEN, and GITHUB_TOKEN. Copilot CLI checks them in that order before it uses stored credentials. An old value in a shell profile, CI runner, container definition, or system service can therefore defeat an otherwise successful logout.

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Rotate after revocation

  1. Revoke the Copilot CLI authorization in GitHub settings if compromise or device loss is suspected.
  2. Run /logout on each local installation and remove keychain, Credential Manager, libsecret, and ~/.copilot/config.json copies.
  3. Unset the three environment variables wherever they are defined.
  4. Run copilot login and complete a new authorization.
  5. Run a harmless command that requires authentication, then verify the old token is rejected.

Copilot organization seats: access removal is not token revocation

Copilot Business and Enterprise have an additional administrative control. Organization owners can remove selected users or teams through GitHub’s Copilot user-management API. GitHub describes this endpoint as public preview and requires the documented organization permissions.

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When an owner removes a seat, GitHub marks selected seats pending cancellation. Users normally lose access at the end of the current billing cycle unless another team still grants them access. That timing is different from immediately revoking a personal OAuth authorization or a leaked PAT. For an incident, revoke the user’s authorizations and credentials now; use seat removal separately to control future entitlement and billing.

Before removing a team, check whether a user receives Copilot through another team or organization. Otherwise an apparently successful team change may not remove access.

Cursor credentials

Cursor Background Agents bearer keys

The Background Agents API authenticates with a bearer API key. Keys are created in Cursor Dashboard > Integrations and are scoped to the account. They can create and manage agents subject to the account’s plan limits and repository access, so a leaked key can have more impact than a single editor session.

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The official documentation does not establish a permanent dashboard button or API endpoint for revoking a Background Agents key. Treat the exact control as version-sensitive: open the current Integrations dashboard, invalidate the old key if the control is available, and rotate every integration that stored it. Do not assume deleting a local environment variable revokes the server-side key. If no documented revoke control is available, contact the account administrator or Cursor support and disable the affected integration while you remove every copy.

Cursor Origin short-lived tokens

Cursor Origin exchanges a personal user API key for a short-lived access token. Integrations should read the returned expiresAt value and mint a new token after that time; they should not assume a fixed lifetime. Origin documentation also states that its keys rotate weekly. Build refresh logic around the expiration field, store the personal key in a secret manager, and avoid writing access tokens to persistent logs.

Weekly rotation limits exposure but is not an incident response substitute. Revoke or invalidate the personal key when possible, replace it in every service, and delete cached access tokens and CI artifacts.

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A provider-neutral rotation runbook

1. Inventory every copy

  • IDE account sessions and extension sign-ins.
  • OAuth authorizations, PATs, API keys, and refresh tokens.
  • Operating-system keychains and credential managers.
  • Configuration files, shell history, dotfiles, and environment variables.
  • CI/CD secret stores, container definitions, deployment manifests, and scheduled jobs.
  • Plugins, agent hosts, notebooks, scripts, and shared developer workstations.

Search by credential prefix and variable name rather than pasting the complete secret into a search service. For a GitHub token, prefixes such as ghp_, github_pat_, gho_, ghu_, and ghr_ help locate copies without exposing the full value.

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2. Revoke server-side first

Use the provider’s authorization page, token list, or documented API. Server-side revocation is the event that makes the old value unusable; local deletion only reduces the chance that a client will continue sending it.

3. Remove local and automated copies

Delete keychain entries and config-file values, unset variables in shell profiles and services, and replace CI secrets rather than editing a log or build artifact. Rotate any secret that was copied into a Docker layer, VM image, backup, or artifact repository; deleting the visible source does not erase historical layers.

4. Create the replacement with less power

Choose repository, organization, and API permissions narrowly. Prefer an expiration date and a service-specific secret over a personal credential shared by multiple jobs. GitHub’s Copilot SDK guidance describes session-scoped token providers and refresh callbacks; each token result must include expiresIn. The same guidance says production GitHub tokens typically last eight hours, which is a useful ceiling for an application session, not a promise that every GitHub credential expires after eight hours.

5. Update consumers in dependency order

  1. Write the replacement to the central secret manager.
  2. Update CI and deployment references, then restart workers that cache environment variables.
  3. Update IDEs, CLI profiles, plugins, agent services, and local development shells.
  4. Remove the old value from templates and documentation so it is not reintroduced.

6. Verify both success and failure

Use a harmless authenticated operation: for example, read a permitted repository or request the provider’s identity endpoint. Confirm the new credential succeeds and the revoked credential receives an authentication failure. Also test a clean machine or container so a hidden local cache cannot make the result look successful.

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7. Review and close the incident

Check organization and repository audit logs, OAuth grants, agent creation history, CI run logs, and unusual repository activity. Remove unauthorized keys, revoke sessions created by an attacker, and document the credential owner, replacement date, scope, expiration, and next rotation date.

Common failure modes

“I ran logout, so the leak is fixed.”

Local logout removes one stored copy. It does not revoke a GitHub authorization or a bearer key. Perform the provider-side revocation and then clean local storage.

“The new token works, so the old one must be dead.”

Issuing a replacement does not disable the old value unless the provider explicitly rotates both as one operation. Test the old credential after revocation.

“The app still works immediately after revocation.”

Cached sessions can outlive the authorization check. VS Code Copilot can continue for up to 30 minutes after GitHub authorization revocation. Disconnect a suspected device and sign out locally instead of interpreting that grace period as a failed revoke.

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“Removing a Copilot seat removed the user’s access.”

Organization seat removal can remain pending until the billing cycle ends, and another team may still grant access. Revoke personal authorizations immediately when the security objective is containment.

“The environment variable is gone, but the CLI keeps using the old account.”

Check the precedence order and every shell, service, container, and keychain. Copilot CLI checks COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN, then GH_TOKEN, then GITHUB_TOKEN, before stored credentials.

“A dashboard has no obvious revoke button.”

Do not invent an endpoint or assume deletion. Cursor Background Agents documentation does not establish a definitive revoke control. Inspect the current dashboard, disable the integration, rotate all copies, and ask the account administrator or provider for the supported invalidation procedure.

Designing safer AI-token handling

  • Keep personal login tokens out of CI; use a dedicated service identity with limited repository access.
  • Use secret managers and short-lived tokens where the provider supports them; never commit credentials to source control.
  • Make rotation a documented runbook with an owner, consumer inventory, verification test, and rollback plan.
  • Set alerts for new OAuth grants, PAT creation, unusual repository access, and agent creation.
  • Separate development, staging, and production credentials so one leak cannot unlock every environment.
  • Require reauthorization after device loss, offboarding, or a change in organization membership.

The practical rule is simple: revoke on the server, erase every local copy, replace with less privilege, and prove that the old value fails. That sequence applies whether the credential came from GitHub Copilot, Cursor, an editor extension, a background agent, or another AI coding tool.

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