When you integrate your eclipse project with a github repository you can use a personal access token (PAT) to authorize the integration and let eclipse write to and read from github. Unless the PAT is set to never expire, eventually you will need to create a new PAT. The github side was easy because I got an email that said it was expired and gave me a link to extend it.
The question then is ... where do I go in Eclipse to put the new PAT? It has been a while since I set it up in the first place.