diff --git a/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml b/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
index 52c2b27..28a665f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ jobs:
           - {os: ubuntu-latest,   r: 'oldrel-1'}
 
     env:
-      GITHUB_PAT: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      GITHUB_PAT: ${{ secrets.GIST_TOKEN }}
       R_KEEP_PKG_SOURCE: yes
 
     steps:
@@ -44,6 +44,12 @@ jobs:
           extra-packages: any::rcmdcheck
           needs: check
 
+      # Added step for testing gist creation using GIST_TOKEN
+      # - name: Run gist creation test
+      #   run: |
+      #     echo "Running gist creation test..."
+      #     Rscript -e "gistr::gist_create(file = 'tests/test-gist.md', description = 'Test gist creation')"
+
       - uses: r-lib/actions/check-r-package@v2
         with:
           upload-snapshots: true
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index ad7af34..d3ada32 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ Description: Work with 'GitHub' 'gists' from 'R' (e.g.,
     <https://gist.github.com/>.
 Version: 0.9.0.93
 Authors@R: c(
-    person("Scott", "Chamberlain", role = c("aut", "cre"), 
-        email = "myrmecocystus@gmail.com", 
-        comment = c(ORCID="0000-0003-1444-9135")),
+    person("Scott", "Chamberlain", , "myrmecocystus@gmail.com", role = "aut",
+           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-1444-9135")),
     person("Ramnath", "Vaidyanathan", role = "aut"),
     person("Karthik", "Ram", role = "aut"),
-    person("Milgram", "Eric", role = "aut")
+    person("Milgram", "Eric", role = c("aut", "cre")),
+    person("Eric R.", "Scott", role = "ctb")
   )
 License: MIT + file LICENSE
 URL: https://github.com/ropensci/gistr (devel),
@@ -35,11 +35,12 @@ Imports:
     assertthat,
     knitr,
     rmarkdown,
-    dplyr
+    dplyr,
+    gitcreds
 Suggests:
     git2r,
     testthat
-RoxygenNote: 7.1.1
+RoxygenNote: 7.3.2
 X-schema.org-applicationCategory: Web
 X-schema.org-keywords: http, https, API, web-services, GitHub, GitHub API, gist, gists, code, script, snippet
 X-schema.org-isPartOf: https://ropensci.org
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 70bd95d..05d6ecb 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 gistr in development
 ===============
 
+### NEW FEATURES
+
+* `gistr` now uses `gitcreds` to discover GitHub PATs and now recommends you store your PAT using `gitcreds::gitcreds_set()` rather than as the `GITHUB_PAT` environment variable (although this still works).
+
 ### BUG FIXES
 
 * fix `gist_auth()`: at some point `httr::oauth2.0_token` stopped returning the token in the `headers` slot; can't figure out when this change happened; fix is to get the token from a different place in the returned object; changes to `gist_auth()` to access that new path to the token (#83)
diff --git a/R/gist_auth.R b/R/gist_auth.R
index bbb54df..34cc7aa 100644
--- a/R/gist_auth.R
+++ b/R/gist_auth.R
@@ -1,22 +1,22 @@
 #' Authorize with GitHub.
 #'
-#' This function is run automatically to allow gistr to access your GitHub 
+#' This function is run automatically to allow gistr to access your GitHub
 #' account.
 #'
 #' There are two ways to authorise gistr to work with your GitHub account:
-#' 
-#' - Generate a personal access token with the gist scope selected, and set it
-#' as the `GITHUB_PAT` environment variable per session using `Sys.setenv`
-#' or across sessions by adding it to your `.Renviron` file or similar.
-#' See
+#'
+#' - Generate a personal access token with the gist scope selected, and store it
+#' with `gitcreds::gitcreds_set()`. Alternatively you can set it as the
+#' `GITHUB_PAT` environment variable per session using `Sys.setenv()` or across
+#' sessions by adding it to your `.Renviron` file or similar. See
 #' https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use
-#' for help
-#' - Interactively login into your GitHub account and authorise with OAuth.
+#' for help or use `usethis::create_github_token()`.
+#' - Interactively log in into your GitHub account and authorise with OAuth.
 #'
-#' Using `GITHUB_PAT` is recommended.
+#' Using `gitcreds::gitcreds_set()` is recommended.
 #'
 #' @export
-#' @param app An [httr::oauth_app()] for GitHub. The default uses an 
+#' @param app An [httr::oauth_app()] for GitHub. The default uses an
 #' application `gistr_oauth` created by Scott Chamberlain.
 #' @param reauth (logical) Force re-authorization?
 #' @return a named list, with a single slot for `Authorization`, with a single
@@ -27,24 +27,40 @@
 #' }
 
 gist_auth <- function(app = gistr_app, reauth = FALSE) {
- 
+
+  #if there is a token cached, use that
   if (exists("auth_config", envir = cache) && !reauth) {
-    return(auth_header(cache$auth_config$auth_token$credentials$access_token))
+    return(auth_header(cache$auth_config$auth_token))
   }
-  pat <- Sys.getenv("GITHUB_PAT", "")
-  if (!identical(pat, "")) {
-    auth_config <- list(auth_token=list(credentials=list(access_token=pat)))
-  } else if (!interactive()) {
-    stop("In non-interactive environments, please set GITHUB_PAT env to a GitHub",
-         " access token (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use)",
-         call. = FALSE)
-  } else  {
-    endpt <- httr::oauth_endpoints("github")
-    token <- httr::oauth2.0_token(endpt, app, scope = "gist", cache = !reauth)
-    auth_config <- httr::config(token = token)
+  #if nothing cached, use gitcreds to retrieve PAT stored as an GITHUB_PAT
+  #environment variable or set with gitcreds::gitcreds_set(). gitcreds_get()
+  #errors when no PAT is found, but we want to try one more method, so silence
+  #this error and return NULL.
+  creds <- tryCatch(
+    error = function(cnd) {
+      return(NULL)
+    },
+    gitcreds::gitcreds_get()
+  )
+  token <- creds$password
+  #TODO would be great to check here that token has "gist" scope
+  #if no token, or invalid token and interactive, try direct oauth
+  if ((is.null(token) | !valid_gh_pat(token))) {
+    if (interactive()) {
+      endpt <- httr::oauth_endpoints("github")
+      auth <- httr::oauth2.0_token(endpt, app, scope = "gist", cache = !reauth)
+      token <- auth$credentials$access_token
+    } else {
+      stop("In non-interactive environments, please set GITHUB_PAT env to a GitHub",
+           " access token (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use)",
+           call. = FALSE)
+    }
   }
+
+  #cache auth config
+  auth_config <- httr::config(token = token)
   cache$auth_config <- auth_config
-  auth_header(auth_config$auth_token$credentials$access_token)
+  return(auth_header(auth_config$auth_token))
 }
 
 auth_header <- function(x) list(Authorization = paste0("token ", x))
@@ -56,3 +72,11 @@ gistr_app <- httr::oauth_app(
   "89ecf04527f70e0f9730",
   "77b5970cdeda925513b2cdec40c309ea384b74b7"
 )
+
+# inspired by https://github.com/r-lib/gh/blob/main/R/gh_token.R
+valid_gh_pat <- function(x) {
+  !is.null(x) & (
+    grepl("^(gh[pousr]_[A-Za-z0-9_]{36,251}|github_pat_[A-Za-z0-9_]{36,244})$", x) ||
+      grepl("^[[:xdigit:]]{40}$", x)
+  )
+}
diff --git a/R/gistr-package.R b/R/gistr-package.R
index de9d669..43b1abe 100644
--- a/R/gistr-package.R
+++ b/R/gistr-package.R
@@ -22,13 +22,12 @@
 #' @importFrom jsonlite fromJSON flatten
 #' @name gistr-package
 #' @aliases gistr
-#' @docType package
 #' @title R client for GitHub gists
 #' @author Scott Chamberlain \email{myrmecocystus@@gmail.com}
 #' @author Ramnath Vaidyanathan \email{ramnath.vaidya@@gmail.com}
 #' @author Karthik Ram \email{karthik.ram@@gmail.com}
 #' @keywords package
-NULL
+"_PACKAGE"
 
 #' @title Create gists
 #'
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ NULL
 #' - [gist_create_git()] - Create gists from files or code
 #'  blocks, using  git. Because this function uses git, you have more
 #'  flexibility than with the above function: you can include any binary files,
-#'  and can easily upload all artifacts. 
+#'  and can easily upload all artifacts.
 #' - [gist_create_obj()] - Create gists from R objects: data.frame, list,
 #'  character string, matrix, or numeric. Uses the GitHub HTTP API.
 #'
diff --git a/man/gist_auth.Rd b/man/gist_auth.Rd
index 7f73c13..67e95bd 100644
--- a/man/gist_auth.Rd
+++ b/man/gist_auth.Rd
@@ -24,16 +24,16 @@ account.
 \details{
 There are two ways to authorise gistr to work with your GitHub account:
 \itemize{
-\item Generate a personal access token with the gist scope selected, and set it
-as the \code{GITHUB_PAT} environment variable per session using \code{Sys.setenv}
-or across sessions by adding it to your \code{.Renviron} file or similar.
-See
+\item Generate a personal access token with the gist scope selected, and store it
+with \code{gitcreds::gitcreds_set()}. Alternatively you can set it as the
+\code{GITHUB_PAT} environment variable per session using \code{Sys.setenv()} or across
+sessions by adding it to your \code{.Renviron} file or similar. See
 https://help.github.com/articles/creating-an-access-token-for-command-line-use
-for help
-\item Interactively login into your GitHub account and authorise with OAuth.
+for help or use \code{usethis::create_github_token()}.
+\item Interactively log in into your GitHub account and authorise with OAuth.
 }
 
-Using \code{GITHUB_PAT} is recommended.
+Using \code{gitcreds::gitcreds_set()} is recommended.
 }
 \examples{
 \dontrun{
diff --git a/man/gistr-package.Rd b/man/gistr-package.Rd
index 8cf9feb..6adc362 100644
--- a/man/gistr-package.Rd
+++ b/man/gistr-package.Rd
@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ and record it in the \code{GITHUB_PAT} envar.
 }
 
 Using the \code{GITHUB_PAT} is recommended.
+}
+\seealso{
+Useful links:
+\itemize{
+  \item \url{https://github.com/ropensci/gistr (devel)}
+  \item \url{https://docs.ropensci.org/gistr (website)}
+  \item Report bugs at \url{https://github.com/ropensci/gistr/issues}
+}
+
 }
 \author{
 Scott Chamberlain \email{myrmecocystus@gmail.com}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/.gitignore b/tests/testthat/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b49c113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.httr-oauth
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-gist_auth.R b/tests/testthat/test-gist_auth.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7ec666
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-gist_auth.R
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+test_that("gitcreds finds PAT", {
+  expect_equal(gitcreds::gitcreds_get()$password, Sys.getenv("GITHUB_PAT"))
+})
+
+
+test_that("gist_auth finds PAT", {
+  skip_on_cran()
+  auth <- gist_auth(reauth = TRUE)
+  expect_equal(
+    auth$Authorization,
+    paste0("token ", gitcreds::gitcreds_get()$password)
+  )
+})
+
+#can't (easily) test PAT stored with gitcreds::gitcreds_set() or interactive oauth
+
+test_that("valid_gh_pat() works", {
+  expect_false(valid_gh_pat("hello"))
+  expect_false(valid_gh_pat(""))
+  expect_false(valid_gh_pat(NULL))
+})