Authentication was immediate and verification was straightforward

Both models read the token from .env, passed it as a Bearer header, and confirmed identity with GET /user on the first attempt. The repo endpoint returned a permissions object showing role-level access (admin, push, pull, etc.), which both models used to confirm the token worked. Sonnet additionally checked the github-authentication-token-expiration response header, which showed the token's expiry date. Model divergence: Sonnet additionally checked the github-authentication-token-expiration response header.