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log-in-via-pat.md

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title Sign in with a Personal Access Token (PAT), Azure DevOps CLI
titleSuffix Azure DevOps
description Use a Personal Access Token (PAT) with Azure DevOps CLI
ms.topic how-to
ms.subservice azure-devops-reference
ms.manager mijacobs
ms.author chcomley
author chcomley
monikerRange azure-devops
ms.date 01/08/2025

Sign in with a personal access token (PAT)

[!INCLUDE version-eq-azure-devops]

You can sign in using an Azure DevOps personal access token (PAT). To create a PAT, see Use personal access tokens.

[!INCLUDE use-microsoft-entra-reduce-pats]

To use a PAT with the Azure DevOps CLI, use one of these options:

  • Use az devops login and be prompted for the PAT token.

  • Pipe the PAT token on StdIn to az devops login.

    [!NOTE] This option works only in a non-interactive shell.

  • Set the AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT [environment variable]((#use-the-azuredevopsextpat-environment-variable), and don't use az devops login.

User prompted to use az devops login

You're prompted to enter a PAT after you run the az devops login command:

$az devops login --organization https://dev.azure.com/contoso
Token:

Note

If you have already signed in with az login interactively or if you're using a user name and password, you're not required to provide a token because the az devops commands now support sign-in through az login.

When you're successfully signed in, this command also can set your default organization to Contoso, provided no default organization is configured.

Note

For Guest Users, only the az devops login is supported.

Pipe PAT on StdIn to az devops login

From a variable

This option is useful in pipelines in which you can replace ##### with $(System.AccessToken) or another pipeline variable:

echo  "######" | az devops login --organization https://dev.azure.com/contoso/

From a file

cat my_pat_token.txt | az devops login --organization https://dev.azure.com/contoso/

Use the AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT environment variable

To gain access in a non-interactive manner for automation scenarios, you can use environment variables or fetch a PAT from a file.

If az login or az devops login haven't been used, all az devops commands try to sign in using a PAT stored in the AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT environment variable.

To use a PAT, set the AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT environment variable at the process level.

Windows

# set environment variable for current process
$env:AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT = 'xxxxxxxxxx'
macOS and Linux
export AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT=xxxxxxxxxx

Replace xxxxxxxxxx with your PAT.