The October 21 GitHub changelog describes a new preview for expiring, automatically refreshed CLI credentials. Instead of a long-lived token, the CLI keeps a short-lived access token and refreshes it when necessary. For machines running unattended scripts, that reduces the damage from a copied access token.
This is not a blind upgrade. The documented command is gh auth login --expiring, with an optional configuration setting for future logins. GitHub explicitly warns that scripts which copy gh auth token once and save it will fail when the token expires. Review the MiniMac’s automated GitHub jobs before switching authentication.
For a safe experiment, upgrade the CLI, inspect gh auth status and test on a noncritical account or environment. Leave working automation credentials unchanged until the full path from authentication to git credential helper has been checked.
What to do: Review whether any scripts cache gh auth token before testing the opt-in credential mode.