diff --git a/scripts/docs-deploy/github-versioning.ts b/scripts/docs-deploy/github-versioning.ts
index c9cf59e992c4..809c25fea5da 100644
--- a/scripts/docs-deploy/github-versioning.ts
+++ b/scripts/docs-deploy/github-versioning.ts
@@ -7,10 +7,12 @@ import {
   getNextBranchName,
 } from '@angular/dev-infra-private/ng-dev';
 
+import {githubAccessToken} from './utils';
+
 export function getReleaseRepoWithApi(): ReleaseRepoWithApi {
   const githubClient =
-    process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN !== undefined
-      ? new AuthenticatedGithubClient(process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN)
+    githubAccessToken !== undefined
+      ? new AuthenticatedGithubClient(githubAccessToken)
       : new GithubClient();
   const {github} = getConfig([assertValidGithubConfig]);
 
diff --git a/scripts/docs-deploy/utils.ts b/scripts/docs-deploy/utils.ts
index 51760025b03d..f1255aaf069e 100644
--- a/scripts/docs-deploy/utils.ts
+++ b/scripts/docs-deploy/utils.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ export const sites = {
     new SiteTarget(`v${major}-material-angular-io`, `https://v${major}.material.angular.io`),
 };
 
+/** Optional Github access token. Can be used for querying the active release trains. */
+export const githubAccessToken: string | undefined = process.env.DOCS_DEPLOY_GITHUB_TOKEN;
+
 /** Configuration describing the Firebase project that we deploy to. */
 export const firebaseConfig = {
   projectId: 'material-angular-io',