Renovate "No authentication found" / no token in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

Self-hosted Renovate needs a platform token to authenticate. If RENOVATE_TOKEN (or token in config) is unset or empty, Renovate cannot list repositories or open PRs and aborts with a fatal authentication error.

What this error means

Renovate exits early with "No authentication found" or "PLATFORM_AUTHENTICATION_ERROR", and never processes any repository.

FATAL: No authentication found for platform github
  Please set a RENOVATE_TOKEN environment variable or token config option.

Common causes

RENOVATE_TOKEN is unset or empty

The environment variable was never provided (or the secret resolved empty), so Renovate has no credential to authenticate.

The token is passed to the wrong field

A token set for github.com changelog lookups is not the platform token; the platform still needs RENOVATE_TOKEN.

How to fix it

Provide RENOVATE_TOKEN from a secret

1. Create a token (PAT or app installation token) with repo access.
2. Expose it as RENOVATE_TOKEN in the Renovate step env.
3. Re-run and confirm Renovate lists repositories.

env:
  RENOVATE_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}

Use a GitHub App token for scale

For many repositories, an App installation token avoids per-user PAT limits and is provided the same way via RENOVATE_TOKEN.

How to prevent it

• Always set RENOVATE_TOKEN from a secret for self-hosted runs.
• Keep the platform token distinct from GITHUB_COM_TOKEN.
• Prefer a GitHub App token when running across many repos.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation