> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.specifyapp.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.specifyapp.com/resources/best-practices.md).

# Best practices

## Set your Personal Access Token as an environment variable

Your Specify personal access token must always be **private**. We highly recommend you to set it in a private environment variable or in a `.env` file.

### Using an `.env` file in a JavaScript config file

{% code title=".env" %}

```bash
SPECIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN=ab83f8f49f5c65456c7b1fe70efbc804aa08f87150214aa984d4125945ed8283bash
```

{% endcode %}

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="ESM" %}
{% code title=".specifyrc.mjs" %}

```javascript
import path from 'node:path';
import process from 'node:process';
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config({
  path: path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.env.specify-cli'),
});

export default {
  version: '2',
  repository: '@workspace/repository',
  personalAccessToken: process.env.SPECIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN,
  rules: [],
};
```

{% endcode %}
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="CommonJS" %}
{% code title=".specifyrc.cjs" %}

```javascript
const path = require('path');
const envFile = '.env';
require('dotenv').config({ path: path.resolve(process.cwd(), envFile) });

module.exports = {
  version: '2',
  repository: '@workspace/repository',
  personalAccessToken: process.env.SPECIFY_TOKEN,
  rules: [],
};
```

{% endcode %}

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

### Using the `--personal-access-token` CLI flag

You can inject your personal access token through the `--personal-access-token, -p` CLI flag.

```bash
specify pull -p $SPECIFY_TOKEN
```

{% hint style="info" %}
You can use this method to sync Specify with git repositories in [GitLab](https://specifyapp.com/blog/specify-to-gitlab#creating-the-merge-request), [GitHub](https://specifyapp.com/blog/how-to-pull-design-tokens-from-several-specify-repositories-on-github#how-to-use-this-workflow-in-github), [Azure DevOps](https://specifyapp.com/blog/specify-to-azure) or [Bitbucket](https://specifyapp.com/blog/specify-to-bitbucket).
{% endhint %}