Least-Privilege Tokens and Branch Protection

Push to branches, never to main

Give the fix bot a token that can create branches and pull requests, but cannot push to protected branches, approve its own pull requests, change repository settings or read unrelated repositories. Protect the main branch: required status checks, required human approval, no force pushes. Scope tokens per repository, make them short-lived where possible, and log every action the bot takes.

Bot permissions

Allow the minimum.

action                                    bot allowed?
read repository contents                  yes (only target repos)
create branch autofix/*                   yes
open / update pull request                yes
push to main                              no (branch protection)
approve or merge its own PR               no
edit workflows / settings / secrets       no
read organisation secrets                 no

Use a dedicated bot identity

A separate account or app makes bot actions easy to audit and to revoke.

Quick check: Which permission should an auto-fix bot NOT have?

• Merging its own pull requests into main
• Creating a branch
• Opening a pull request
• Reading the target repository