Error when installing usethis with pak::pak("r-lib/usethis")

[bbitarello]

Hello, I have been trying for hours to install gradethis and keep getting the same error:

# insert reprex here
> pak::pak("r-lib/usethis")
Error:                                                     
! error in pak subprocess
Caused by error: 
! Could not solve package dependencies:
* r-lib/usethis: ! pkgdepends resolution error for r-lib/usethis.
Caused by error: 
! Bad GitHub credentials, make sure that your GitHub token is valid.
Caused by error in `stop(http_error(resp))`:
! Unauthorized (HTTP 401).
Type .Last.error to see the more details.

I thought it could be a github PAT issue so I reset it using:

#install.packages("gitcreds")
library(gitcreds)
gitcreds_set()

The error persists.

> sessionInfo()
R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Ventura 13.5.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib 
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.3-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib;  LAPACK version 3.11.0

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

time zone: America/New_York
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] gitcreds_0.1.2     learnr_0.11.4.9000

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] cli_3.6.1         knitr_1.43        rlang_1.1.1       xfun_0.39         processx_3.8.2    promises_1.2.0.1 
 [7] shiny_1.7.4.1     jsonlite_1.8.7    xtable_1.8-4      glue_1.6.2        rprojroot_2.0.3   htmltools_0.5.5  
[13] httpuv_1.6.11     ps_1.7.5          pak_0.6.0         rmarkdown_2.23    evaluate_0.21     ellipsis_0.3.2   
[19] fastmap_1.1.1     yaml_2.3.7        lifecycle_1.0.3   compiler_4.3.1    htmlwidgets_1.6.2 Rcpp_1.0.11      
[25] rstudioapi_0.15.0 later_1.3.1       digest_0.6.33     R6_2.5.1          callr_3.7.3       magrittr_2.0.3   
[31] tools_4.3.1       withr_2.5.0       mime_0.12     

Help will be appreciated!
Thank you

[jennybc]

I would take the error at face value and use PAT troubleshooting strategies.

usethis offers some functions to help with this:

usethis::gh_token_help()
# or
usethis::git_sitrep()

It is also possible that maybe you have a bad PAT stored as an environment variable? That is described here:

https://usethis.r-lib.org/articles/git-credentials.html#what-about--renviron