Add authenticated GitHub API access for builds

Author: alainrobert

.github/workflows/main.yml

@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ jobs:
           node-version: '18'
       - run: npm install
       - run: npm run build
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       - uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
         with:
           github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

README.md

@@ -23,12 +23,39 @@ cd DecisionsDev.github.io
 # Install dependencies
 npm install
 
+# Optional: authenticate GitHub API requests to avoid rate limits
+# PowerShell
+$env:GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+
+# Bash
+export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+
 # Start development server
 npm run dev
 ```
 
 The site will be available at `http://localhost:8000`
 
+### GitHub API Authentication
+
+Several repository tooling scripts call the GitHub REST API. Unauthenticated requests are heavily rate-limited and can fail with HTTP 403 responses such as “API rate limit exceeded”.
+
+Set [`GITHUB_TOKEN`](README.md:32) before running [`npm run build`](package.json:11), [`npm run build:repos`](package.json:9), [`npm run build:videos`](package.json:10), or direct tooling like [`tools/build-repositories.js`](tools/build-repositories.js), [`tools/extract-videos.js`](tools/extract-videos.js), and [`tools/generate-topics-report.js`](tools/generate-topics-report.js).
+
+Use a GitHub personal access token with at least public repository read access.
+
+```powershell
+# PowerShell
+$env:GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+npm run build
+```
+
+```bash
+# Bash
+export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+npm run build
+```
+
 ## 📁 Project Structure
 
 ```
@@ -76,7 +103,7 @@ npm run build:repos
 # Fetch and categorize videos from GitHub
 npm run build:videos
 
-# Build for production (includes build:repos)
+# Build for production (includes GitHub API-backed data refresh)
 npm run build
 
 # Serve production build locally

docs/DEPLOYMENT.md

@@ -143,13 +143,23 @@ jobs:
 
 ## Updating Repository Data
 
-Before deploying, you may want to update the repository list:
+Before deploying, you may want to update the repository list.
+
+Authenticated GitHub API access is recommended because unauthenticated requests can fail with HTTP 403 rate-limit errors.
+
+```powershell
+# PowerShell
+$env:GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+npm run build:repos
+```
 
 ```bash
-node fetch-repos.js > src/data/repositories.json
+# Bash
+export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"
+npm run build:repos
 ```
 
-This fetches the latest repositories from the DecisionsDev organization.
+This runs [`tools/build-repositories.js`](tools/build-repositories.js), which fetches the latest repositories from the DecisionsDev organization and rebuilds [`src/data/repositories.json`](src/data/repositories.json).
 
 ## Support
 

docs/SETUP.md

@@ -92,10 +92,15 @@ The site will be available at `http://localhost:8000`
 ## Step 5: Build for Production
 
 ```bash
+# Optional but recommended to avoid GitHub API rate limiting
+export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token_here
+
 # Build the site
 npm run build
 ```
 
+On PowerShell, use [`$env:GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token_here"`](docs/README-TOPICS-SCRIPT.md:61) instead of [`export`](docs/SETUP.md:95).
+
 This creates optimized production files in the `public/` directory.
 
 **Verify:**