diff --git a/environment.sample b/environment.sample
index ff75553a..2463bda1 100644
--- a/environment.sample
+++ b/environment.sample
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ GITHUB_SECRET=
 GITHUB_LOGIN=
 # GitHub oauth token
 GITHUB_TOKEN=
+# Repo is private
+GITHUB_REPO_PRIVATE=True
 # Coma separated list of github organisations names (for organization wide scheduled tasks)
 #GITHUB_ORG=
 # Git name and email used for creating commits (default: user git config,
diff --git a/src/oca_github_bot/config.py b/src/oca_github_bot/config.py
index e5a23c3c..38ff4cfa 100644
--- a/src/oca_github_bot/config.py
+++ b/src/oca_github_bot/config.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ def func_wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
 GITHUB_ORG = (
     os.environ.get("GITHUB_ORG") and os.environ.get("GITHUB_ORG").split(",") or []
 )
+GITHUB_REPO_PRIVATE = os.environ.get("GITHUB_REPO_PRIVATE")
 GIT_NAME = os.environ.get("GIT_NAME")
 GIT_EMAIL = os.environ.get("GIT_EMAIL")
 
diff --git a/src/oca_github_bot/github.py b/src/oca_github_bot/github.py
index 92f5e62b..a1520bfd 100644
--- a/src/oca_github_bot/github.py
+++ b/src/oca_github_bot/github.py
@@ -68,8 +68,10 @@ def temporary_clone(org, repo, branch):
     if not os.path.isdir(repo_cache_dir):
         os.makedirs(repo_cache_dir)
         check_call(["git", "init", "--bare"], cwd=repo_cache_dir)
-    repo_url = f"https://github.com/{org}/{repo}"
+    repo_url_no_token = f"https://github.com/{org}/{repo}"
     repo_url_with_token = f"https://{config.GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/{org}/{repo}"
+
+    repo_url = repo_url_with_token if config.GITHUB_REPO_PRIVATE else repo_url_no_token
     # fetch all branches into cache
     fetch_cmd = [
         "git",