Best practices for CLI authentication: a technical guide

This technical guide explores best practices for Command Line Interface (CLI) authentication, focusing on securely obtaining and managing credentials across various environments such as terminals, machines, and Docker containers. Common CLI authentication patterns discussed include API keys and credentials files, browser-based OAuth flow, device code flow, and username/password with token exchange. Strategies for enhancing security, such as using temporary tokens, system keychains, encrypted configuration files, environment variables, and secrets management solutions are also covered. The guide highlights best practices for CLI authentication in containerized environments and provides anti-patterns to avoid when implementing auth in command line tools.

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