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Updatecli supports Personal Access Token (PAT) authentication for interacting with Azure DevOps. You can authenticate using environment variables or directly in your manifest.

1. Personal Access Token via Environment Variables

Set the following environment variables to enable PAT authentication:

  • UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN: Your Azure DevOps Personal Access Token

  • UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME: Your Azure DevOps username

Example:

export UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN="your-pat-token"
export UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME="your-username"
Note

These variables are read per field: exporting only UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN is enough to supply the token while the username comes from elsewhere.

2. Personal Access Token via Manifest

You can specify your Personal Access Token directly in your Updatecli manifest under the spec.token and spec.username fields:

scms:
  default:
    kind: azuredevops
    spec:
      organization: myorg
      project: myproject
      repository: myrepo
      token: "{{ requiredEnv `UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN` }}"
      username: "{{ requiredEnv `UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME` }}"
Warning

For security reasons, it is recommended to use environment variables or secret management tools (like SOPS) instead of hardcoding tokens in your manifest.

Precedence and Fallback

Which of the two wins depends on the plugin:

azuredevops

The manifest wins. UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN and UPDATECLI_AZURE_DEVOPS_USERNAME only fill in the fields the manifest leaves empty.

azuredevopssearch

The environment wins. When either variable is set, it overrides the matching manifest field.

Nothing validates that a credential was found at all: only organization is checked when the manifest loads. A missing or wrong token surfaces later, when Updatecli calls the API or clones the repository.

Further Reading

Tip: For best security and maintainability, prefer using environment variables for authentication, and avoid hardcoding secrets in your manifests.

Last updated on July 30, 2026
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