Source Tree and visualstudio.com personal access tokens: How to use the token?

Question

I have just created a personal access token at visualstudio.com, because in SourceTree I could not manage to log in with my visualstudio.com e-mail and password. Now that I have the token, how to I use it? I cannot find any information online on how to use it in SourceTree. If I choose Clone/New, and enter the URL to the git repo, I am asked a username and password, not a token... Can anyone help please?

Answer 1

Just use a token as your per-application password.

VisualStudio.com used to have alternate authentication credentials (something like a second password), s.t. you don't need to trust 3rd-party applications with your MS account password. This has been refined in favor of access tokens, which allow to control access on a granular level (per application / service / read-only, read-write). This allows to enter such an access token e.g. on a 3rd-party build service, without fear that your main password is disclosed or mis-used (e.g. when the 3rd-party provider is hacked). Also, access can easily be revoked (instead of setting a new password and then entering it everywhere except for the application you don't trust / want to use anymore).

From a client applications point of view, the access token is just a password.