diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 630f87b..79f3582 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 Vertex Common Tools Changelog
 *****************************
 
+v0.2.1 - 2025-10-12
+===================
+
+Features and Enhancements
+-------------------------
+- Updated version constraint for ``PyGithub`` to allow recent versions.
+
 v0.2.0 - 2025-07-11
 ===================
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index e3498a1..2f98b19 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-PyGithub==1.53
+PyGithub>=2.8.1,<3.0.0
 PyYAML
 bump2version>=1.0.1,<2.0.0
 pytest
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 13fb477..d5bd8d5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def run(self):
     include_package_data=True,
     python_requires='>=3.11',
     install_requires=[
-        'PyGithub==1.53',
+        'PyGithub>=2.8.1,<3.0.0',
         'PyYAML',
         'bump2version>=1.0.1,<2.0.0',
         'pytest',
diff --git a/vtx_common/tools/github_release.py b/vtx_common/tools/github_release.py
index 14de8c8..a6f80af 100644
--- a/vtx_common/tools/github_release.py
+++ b/vtx_common/tools/github_release.py
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ def main(argv):
 
         return 0
 
-    gh = github.Github(gh_token)
+    gh = github.Github(auth=github.Auth.Token(gh_token))
 
     logger.info(f'Getting github repo for {gh_repo_path}')
     repo = gh.get_repo(gh_repo_path)