Sometimes you want to use a gem on Scalingo that is in a private repository on GitHub.

Using Git over HTTP you can authenticate to GitHub using basic authentication. However, we don’t want to embed usernames and passwords in Gemfiles. Instead, we can use authentication tokens.

When using Bundler

Bundler now supports credentials for gem sources using environment variable. Here is a guide from the Bundler documentation.

If this solution does not work for you, here is another solution to do the same thing:

Get an OAuth Token from GitHub

First you will need to get an OAuth token from GitHub using your own username and “note”

curl -u 'Soulou' -d '{"scopes":["repo"],"note":"Ventana Example App"}' https://api.github.com/authorizations

Authenticate bundler to GitHub via OAuth Token

Add this line to your Gemfile replacing your_token with the token you got from step 1. In this example we install the ventana gem:

gem 'ventana', git: "https://your_token:x-oauth-basic@github.com/thoughtbot/ventana.git"

Storing the OAuth token in an environment variable (more secure)

For additional security you can store your OAuth token in an environment variable. This way your token is not included in your code base which is insecure.

Change the line in your Gemfile to

gem 'ventana', git: "https://#{ENV['GITHUB_TOKEN']}:x-oauth-basic@github.com/thoughtbot/ventana.git"

Then set the your access token locally using the token you got from above:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

Now bundle and if everything works locally you are ready to deploy to Scalingo!

Finally add the GITHUB_TOKEN to your Scalingo environment

scalingo env-set GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

And deploy

git push scalingo master

You now have a private gem installed on Scalingo!