How to keep Heroku CLI logged in

I use the heroku command-line most days. It frequently logs out, giving this message:

▸ Invalid credentials provided.

Here’s how to keep the heroku CLI logged in for a year.

• Log in to Heroku’s dashboard and create a new Authorization
• Call it something useful e.g. 2025-01-23 heroku cli desktop to remind you next time.
• Set Expires after to 31536000 (1 year)

• Copy that new token into your ~/.netrc file

  # ~/.netrc
  # Regenerate Heroku Authorization annually with a 1-year expiry (31536000 seconds). See:
  # * https://dashboard.heroku.com/account/applications
  # * https://paul.fawkesley.com/blog/2025-01-23-how-to-keep-heroku-cli-logged-in/
  
  machine api.heroku.com
  login your.heroku.login@example.com
  password HRKU-YOUR-NEW-TOKEN
  machine git.heroku.com
  login your.heroku.login@example.com
  password HRKU-YOUR-NEW-TOKEN
  

That’s it. Test it by running heroku whoami.

Notes:

• I tried logging in with heroku login -i using the new token as the password. This appeared to work but created another short-lived Authorization in Heroku. Thanks to this Stackoverflow answer.
• Don’t make a token that never expires. I don’t want a backup I create now to be able to compromise my account 10 years from now. Forever tokens are bad.