Installing Private Python Repo to App Platform

Hi there,

If you want to install packages from a private repository during the build phase in DigitalOcean’s App Platform, you’ll need to provide a method for the build environment to authenticate against the private repository.

One way of doing this would be to:

1. Generate a Personal Access Token:

   For GitHub, you can generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) by going to your account’s Developer Settings → Personal access tokens → Generate new token. Ensure that the token has the necessary scopes for reading your private repositories.

2. Add the Personal Access Token to Your App Platform Environment:

   • Navigate to your app in the DigitalOcean App Platform dashboard.
   • Go to the Settings tab.
   • Under the Environment Variables section, add a new environment variable. Name it something like GITHUB_PAT and paste your Personal Access Token as its value.

3. Modify your requirements.txt:

   Use the environment variable in your requirements.txt file to install the private repo. Here’s a generalized format:

   git+https://$GITHUB_PAT@github.com/username/repo_name.git#egg=package_name
   

   When App Platform builds your app, it will replace $GITHUB_PAT with the actual token, allowing pip to authenticate and download the private package.

4. Redeploy Your App:

   With these changes, redeploy your app on the App Platform.

Let me know how it goes!

Best,

Bobby