Problem Definition

The archives on the Downloads page of the repo can be downloaded programmatically with basic authentication, as follows

curl -u BB_Username:BB_AppPassword https://bitbucket.org/<workspace-id>/<repo-slug>/get/1.0.zip -o 1.0.zip

However, this is not currently possible with a Repository access token. If someone is writing a script to download an archive, and that script can be accessed by other users as well, then their app password gets exposed to other users.

Suggested Solution

Support the download of repo archives using a Repository access token.

Workaround

A Git command can be used to clone the repo. If an archive of a certain tag or branch is needed, then the following command can be used to clone a specific tag or branch

git clone --depth 1 --branch <branch_or_tag> https://x-token-auth@bitbucket.org/<workspace-id>/<repo-slug>.git

<branch_or_tag> can be either a branch name or a tag name.
--depth 1 is optional. If we only need the source code, then it may not be useful to clone the whole history.

If only the source code files are needed and not the history, then the .git folder inside the repo can be deleted after the clone.