Fix mise GitHub Rate Limit with a Token

mise installs most tools by pulling release archives from GitHub. It calls the GitHub API to find the right version tag — and without authentication, those calls count against the unauthenticated rate limit (60 requests/hour per IP). On a fresh machine or after running mise upgrade, you’ll hit it fast.

The error looks like this:

mise WARN  GitHub rate limit exceeded. Resets at 2026-05-16 07:49:43 +05:45
mise WARN  No GitHub token was found, so mise is making unauthenticated requests
mise ERROR Failed to install aqua:openai/codex@latest: HTTP status client error (403 Forbidden)

The fix

Create a personal access token — no scopes required, read-only public access is enough — and add it to your root mise config via the [env] section:

# ~/.config/mise/config.toml
 
[env]
GITHUB_TOKEN = "github_pat_..."

That’s it. mise exports this into its own environment automatically, no shell export needed. Authenticated requests get 5,000 calls/hour, which is effectively unlimited for tool installs.

Why no scopes?

mise only reads public release metadata from GitHub — it never writes anything or accesses private repos. A token with zero scopes is the minimum viable credential: it authenticates your identity for rate-limit purposes without granting any permissions.

Other supported token sources

If you prefer not to store the token in a config file, mise also reads from:

• GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable
• The gh CLI credential store (gh auth login sets this up automatically)
• A credential_command in the mise config (for secret managers like 1Password CLI)

See the mise GitHub tokens docs for the full list.