diff --git a/R/borrow_chapter.R b/R/borrow_chapter.R
index ada523e..28138a9 100644
--- a/R/borrow_chapter.R
+++ b/R/borrow_chapter.R
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@
 #' the child document upon bringing it into the render.
 #' @param branch Default is to pull from main branch, but need to declare if
 #' other branch is needed.
-#' @param token A personal access token from GitHub. Only necessary if the
-#' repository being checked is a private repository.
 #' @param base_url it's assumed this is coming from github so it is by default
 #' 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/'
 #' @param dest_dir A file path where the file should be stored upon arrival to
@@ -77,7 +75,6 @@ borrow_chapter <- function(doc_path,
                            remove_h1 = FALSE,
                            tag_replacement = NULL,
                            branch = "main",
-                           token = NULL,
                            base_url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com",
                            dest_dir = file.path("resources", "other_chapters")) {
   # Declare file names
@@ -104,12 +101,11 @@ borrow_chapter <- function(doc_path,
     if (!is_wiki) {
       exists <- check_git_repo(
         repo_name = repo_name,
-        token = token,
         verbose = FALSE,
         silent = TRUE
       )
       if (!exists) {
-        warning(paste(repo_name, "was not found in GitHub. If it is a private repository, make sure your credentials have been provided"))
+        warning(paste(repo_name, "was not found in GitHub. Borrow chapter does not work with private repositories. Please check that the repository exists and is public."))
       }
     }
 
@@ -131,7 +127,7 @@ borrow_chapter <- function(doc_path,
   }
 
   # Remove leanbuild::set_knitr_image_path() from downloaded file
-  file_contents <- readLines(doc_path)
+  file_contents <- readLines(dest_file)
   file_contents <- gsub("leanbuild::set_knitr_image_path\\(\\)", "", file_contents)
 
   # If remove_header = TRUE
diff --git a/R/github_handling.R b/R/github_handling.R
index c6a6810..8dd8204 100644
--- a/R/github_handling.R
+++ b/R/github_handling.R
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ get_pages_url <- function(repo_name,
       # Github api get
       response <- httr::GET(
         url,
-        httr::add_headers(Authorization = paste0("token ", token)),
+        httr::add_headers(Authorization = paste0("Bearer ", token)),
         httr::accept_json()
       )
 
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ get_repo_info <- function(repo_name,
       # Github api get
       response <- httr::GET(
         url,
-        httr::add_headers(Authorization = paste0("token ", token)),
+        httr::add_headers(Authorization = paste0("Bearer ", token)),
         httr::accept_json()
       )
     }
@@ -192,8 +192,6 @@ get_repo_info <- function(repo_name,
 #' @param silent TRUE/FALSE of whether the warning from the git ls-remote
 #' command should be echoed back if it does fail.
 #' @param verbose TRUE/FALSE do you want more progress messages?
-#' @param return_repo TRUE/FALSE of whether or not the output from git ls-remote
-#' should be saved to a file (if the repo exists)
 #'
 #' @return A TRUE/FALSE whether or not the repository exists. Optionally the
 #' output from git ls-remote if return_repo = TRUE.
@@ -208,7 +206,6 @@ get_repo_info <- function(repo_name,
 check_git_repo <- function(repo_name,
                            token = NULL,
                            silent = TRUE,
-                           return_repo = FALSE,
                            verbose = TRUE) {
   if (verbose) {
     message(paste("Checking for remote git repository:", repo_name))
@@ -219,39 +216,29 @@ check_git_repo <- function(repo_name,
   # Try to get credentials other way
   if (is.null(token)) {
     # Get auth token
-    token <- get_token(app_name = "github")
+    token <- tryCatch(
+              suppressWarnings(get_token(app_name = "github")),
+              error = function(msg) NULL
+            )
   }
 
-  # Run git ls-remote
-  if (!grepl("Error", token[1])) {
-    # If token is supplied, use it
-    test_repo <- report(
-      try(system(paste0("git ls-remote https://", token, "@github.com/", repo_name),
-        intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = TRUE
-      ))
-    )
+  url <- paste0("https://api.github.com/repos/", repo_name)
+
+  # Github api HEAD
+  result <- if(is.null(token)) {
+    httr::HEAD(url)
   } else {
-    # Try to git ls-remote the repo_name given
-    test_repo <- report
-    try(system(paste0("git ls-remote https://github.com/", repo_name),
-      intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = TRUE
-    ))
+    httr::HEAD(
+      url,
+      httr::add_headers(Authorization = paste0("Bearer ", token)),
+    )
   }
-  # If 128 is returned as a status attribute it means it failed
-  exists <- ifelse(is.null(attr(test_repo, "status")), TRUE, FALSE)
 
-  if (return_repo && exists) {
-    # Make file name
-    output_file <- paste0("git_ls_remote_", gsub("/", "_", repo_name))
-
-    # Tell the user the file was saved
-    message(paste("Saving output from git ls-remote to file:", output_file))
-
-    # Write to file
-    writeLines(exists, file.path(output_file))
+  if (httr::status_code(result) != 200) {
+    return(FALSE)
+  } else {
+    return(TRUE)
   }
-
-  return(exists)
 }
 
 
diff --git a/man/borrow_chapter.Rd b/man/borrow_chapter.Rd
index cae81ca..818415c 100644
--- a/man/borrow_chapter.Rd
+++ b/man/borrow_chapter.Rd
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ borrow_chapter(
   remove_h1 = FALSE,
   tag_replacement = NULL,
   branch = "main",
-  token = NULL,
   base_url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com",
   dest_dir = file.path("resources", "other_chapters")
 )
@@ -34,9 +33,6 @@ the child document upon bringing it into the render.}
 \item{branch}{Default is to pull from main branch, but need to declare if
 other branch is needed.}
 
-\item{token}{A personal access token from GitHub. Only necessary if the
-repository being checked is a private repository.}
-
 \item{base_url}{it's assumed this is coming from github so it is by default
 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/'}
 
@@ -65,7 +61,7 @@ Rmd from another repository knitted into the Rmd.
 # For a file in another repository:
 # ```{r, echo=FALSE, results='asis'}
 borrow_chapter(
-  doc_path = "docs/02-chapter_of_course.md",
+  doc_path = "02-chapter_of_course.Rmd",
   repo_name = "ottrproject/OTTR_Template"
 )
 # ```
diff --git a/man/check_git_repo.Rd b/man/check_git_repo.Rd
index fe48570..34a076f 100644
--- a/man/check_git_repo.Rd
+++ b/man/check_git_repo.Rd
@@ -4,13 +4,7 @@
 \alias{check_git_repo}
 \title{Check if a repository exists on GitHub}
 \usage{
-check_git_repo(
-  repo_name,
-  token = NULL,
-  silent = TRUE,
-  return_repo = FALSE,
-  verbose = TRUE
-)
+check_git_repo(repo_name, token = NULL, silent = TRUE, verbose = TRUE)
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{repo_name}{the name of the repository, e.g. ottrproject/OTTR_Template}
@@ -21,9 +15,6 @@ repository being checked is a private repository.}
 \item{silent}{TRUE/FALSE of whether the warning from the git ls-remote
 command should be echoed back if it does fail.}
 
-\item{return_repo}{TRUE/FALSE of whether or not the output from git ls-remote
-should be saved to a file (if the repo exists)}
-
 \item{verbose}{TRUE/FALSE do you want more progress messages?}
 }
 \value{