GitHub adds temporary authentication checks to some public repo HTTPS downloads

GitHub said on Oct. 19 that it will temporarily require authentication for some HTTPS download requests to public repositories when its systems detect unusual traffic. In those cases, operations that normally work without login credentials, including clone and fetch, may suddenly require a token. That change can also interrupt CI jobs and automated installation scripts that rely on anonymous downloads. The issue is not entirely new. On Sept. 2, a developer reported in the GitHub Community that a CI server repeatedly received 401 errors while pulling the public MariaDB repository, and even submodule updates could not complete. The developer behind the game server management tool AMP also said many users saw their installation flows affected, forcing the team to consider urgent program changes. GitHub previously said the platform has been dealing with rising bot traffic, and legitimate development requests may be caught by mistake. Its latest notice gives a clearer description of where the temporary authentication measure applies. GitHub advised developers to configure authentication for automated tasks instead of relying on anonymous HTTPS pulls. Authenticated HTTPS and SSH operations are not affected.