diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
index b56cd98da637..9495e331bd13 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ let
   # to update:
   # 1) change all these hashes
   # 2) nix-build -A tree-sitter.updater.update-all-grammars
-  # 3) run the ./result script that is output by that (it updates ./grammars)
+  # 3) OPTIONAL: Set GITHUB_TOKEN env variable to avoid api rate limit
+  # 4) run the ./result script that is output by that (it updates ./grammars)
   version = "0.20.1";
   sha256 = "sha256-JKbL05hFWI0jhAnRT9D0SWCoRPFqoMD4+LQQ1zyWc7g=";
   cargoSha256 = "sha256-64O+3GrDqhRGth20B2/+jNDYSnwvT3SqYVqYNthiCB0=";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
index 58d420fe4028..19d29f4eaa10 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
@@ -360,9 +360,15 @@ let
   # generic bash script to find the latest github release for a repo
   latestGithubRelease = { orga, repo }: writeShellScript "latest-github-release" ''
     set -euo pipefail
-    res=$(${curl}/bin/curl \
-      --silent \
-      "https://api.github.com/repos/${urlEscape orga}/${urlEscape repo}/releases/latest")
+
+    args=( '--silent' )
+    if [ -n "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ]; then
+      args+=( "-H" "Authorization: token ''${GITHUB_TOKEN}" )
+    fi
+    args+=( "https://api.github.com/repos/${urlEscape orga}/${urlEscape repo}/releases/latest" )
+
+    res=$(${curl}/bin/curl "''${args[@]}")
+
     if [[ "$(printf "%s" "$res" | ${jq}/bin/jq '.message?')" =~ "rate limit" ]]; then
       echo "rate limited" >&2
     fi
@@ -378,9 +384,14 @@ let
   # find the latest repos of a github organization
   latestGithubRepos = { orga }: writeShellScript "latest-github-repos" ''
     set -euo pipefail
-    res=$(${curl}/bin/curl \
-      --silent \
-      'https://api.github.com/orgs/${urlEscape orga}/repos?per_page=100')
+
+    args=( '--silent' )
+    if [ -n "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ]; then
+      args+=( "-H" "Authorization: token ''${GITHUB_TOKEN}" )
+    fi
+    args+=( 'https://api.github.com/orgs/${urlEscape orga}/repos?per_page=100' )
+
+    res=$(${curl}/bin/curl "''${args[@]}")
 
     if [[ "$(printf "%s" "$res" | ${jq}/bin/jq '.message?')" =~ "rate limit" ]]; then
       echo "rate limited" >&2   #