Download private files from github

gistfile1.txt

#' Download a (private) file from github using a personal access token
#' 
#' @description 
#' Download a file from a private repository using GitHub API v3.
#' 
#' @param repo Repository as :owner/:repo
#' @param path Path to file
#' @param pat Personal access token
#' 
#' @details 
#' Do never write down your access token in the code. Use envirnomental variables or config files. 
#'
get_github_file <- function(repo, path, pat){
  auth <-  httr::authenticate(pat, "x-oauth-basic", "basic")  
  req <- httr::GET("https://api.github.com", 
                   path = paste0("repos/",repo,"/contents/",path), auth)
  httr::stop_for_status(req)
  req_file <- httr::GET(httr::content(req, as="parsed")$download_url)
  httr::stop_for_status(req_file)
  httr::content(req_file, as="parsed")
}