Composer [UnexpectedValueException] error will trying to use composer to install a github project

Question

I am trying to install a github project using composer and get the following error

Composer [UnexpectedValueException] Your Github oauth token for github.com contains invalid characters: ""

Can anyone explain what I need to do to correct this error?

I am using the following command

composer create-project --prefer-dist --stability=dev vova07/yii2-start yii2-start

Thank you

Answer 1

I started getting a similar error and the reason was that Github recently changed the format of their auth tokens:

https://github.blog/changelog/2021-03-31-authentication-token-format-updates-are-generally-available/

To resolve the error:

1. Find the composer/auth.json file (if you're running the project in a container, you'll have to bash into it and find the file in there)
2. Remove its github.com entry. Your file will probably look like the following after removing the entry: {"github-oauth": {}}
3. Run composer self-update. The issue got resolved in version 2.0.12. See the first item in the changelog for that version here: https://getcomposer.org/changelog/2.0.12

After that, you can restore your composer/auth.json file to its initial state as the newer version of composer will recognize the new key format.

Answer 2

You can try Basic Auth instead:

Change this (oauth):

  "github-oauth": {     "github.com": "ghp_[YOUR-PERSONAL-TOKEN]"   } 

To this (basic auth):

  "http-basic": {     "github.com": {       "username": "[YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME]",       "password": "ghp_[YOUR-PERSONAL-TOKEN]"     }   } 

You can find instructions on how to create a Personal Access Token

Inspired from github docs. Apparently, you can use Basic Authentication with a Personal Access token instead of oauth in some cases (e.g. like mine: installing a private git repo with composer).