diff --git a/docs/settings.md b/docs/settings.md
index 90927e8..2f23b72 100644
--- a/docs/settings.md
+++ b/docs/settings.md
@@ -70,6 +70,22 @@ PAT can be provided:
 -   Directly as a string
 -   As a file path prefixed with '@' (e.g., "@~/tokens/dremio.token")
 
+#### Basic auth (Dremio Software without PAT support)
+
+Dremio Software deployments that cannot issue PATs (e.g. Community edition)
+can authenticate with username/password instead. The server exchanges the
+credentials for a session token via `POST /apiv2/login` and refreshes it
+automatically before it expires. Ignored for Dremio Cloud; if both `pat` and
+`basic_auth` are configured, the PAT wins.
+
+```yaml
+dremio:
+  uri: https://your-dremio-instance:9047
+  basic_auth:
+    username: <string> # Dremio username
+    password: <string> # Direct value or '@' file reference, e.g. "@~/tokens/dremio.password"
+```
+
 ### Tools Settings
 
 ```yaml
diff --git a/src/dremioai/api/basic_auth.py b/src/dremioai/api/basic_auth.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8897710
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/dremioai/api/basic_auth.py
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+#
+#  Copyright (C) 2017-2025 Dremio Corporation
+#
+#  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+#  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#  limitations under the License.
+#
+"""Session-token login for Dremio Software deployments.
+
+Dremio Software Community edition cannot issue PATs, so the only credential it
+offers is username/password. This module exchanges those credentials for a
+session token via ``POST /apiv2/login`` and installs it as the effective token
+for API calls (the REST API accepts session tokens as ``Bearer`` tokens).
+
+Mirrors the shape of :mod:`dremioai.api.oauth2`: ``get_session_token()``
+returns an object whose ``update_settings()`` mutates the live settings.
+"""
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+from json import dumps, loads
+from typing import Optional
+from urllib.request import Request, urlopen
+
+from dremioai.config import settings
+from dremioai.log import logger
+
+# Re-login this long before the server-reported expiry, so an in-flight
+# request never straddles the expiration boundary.
+_EXPIRY_SAFETY_MARGIN = timedelta(minutes=5)
+
+
+@dataclass
+class SessionToken:
+    token: str
+    expiry: Optional[datetime]
+
+    def update_settings(self):
+        dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+        dremio.pat = self.token
+        dremio.basic_auth.expiry = self.expiry
+
+
+def get_session_token(timeout: float = 30.0) -> SessionToken:
+    """Exchange the configured username/password for a Dremio session token."""
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    basic_auth = dremio.basic_auth
+    body = dumps(
+        {"userName": basic_auth.username, "password": basic_auth.password}
+    ).encode("utf-8")
+    request = Request(
+        f"{dremio.uri}/apiv2/login",
+        data=body,
+        headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"},
+    )
+    with urlopen(request, timeout=timeout) as response:
+        payload = loads(response.read().decode("utf-8"))
+
+    expiry = None
+    if expires_ms := payload.get("expires"):
+        expiry = datetime.fromtimestamp(expires_ms / 1000) - _EXPIRY_SAFETY_MARGIN
+
+    logger().info(f"Obtained Dremio session token (expires {expiry})")
+    return SessionToken(token=payload["token"], expiry=expiry)
diff --git a/src/dremioai/api/transport.py b/src/dremioai/api/transport.py
index ed1cc40..010c172 100644
--- a/src/dremioai/api/transport.py
+++ b/src/dremioai/api/transport.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 
 from dremioai.config import settings
 from dremioai.api.oauth2 import get_oauth2_tokens
+from dremioai.api.basic_auth import get_session_token
 
 DeserializationStrategy: TypeAlias = Union[Callable, BaseModel]
 
@@ -222,6 +223,12 @@ def __init__(self):
             oauth = get_oauth2_tokens()
             oauth.update_settings()
 
+        if dremio.basic_auth_configured and (
+            dremio.pat is None or dremio.basic_auth.has_expired
+        ):
+            session = get_session_token()
+            session.update_settings()
+
         uri = dremio.uri
         pat = dremio.pat
 
diff --git a/src/dremioai/config/settings.py b/src/dremioai/config/settings.py
index e60d193..fb28e7a 100644
--- a/src/dremioai/config/settings.py
+++ b/src/dremioai/config/settings.py
@@ -86,8 +86,10 @@ class NoFlag:
 
     pass
 
+
 class RuntimeMutable:
     """Mark a field as safe to update from a runtime config reload."""
+
     pass
 
 
@@ -95,6 +97,7 @@ class RuntimeMutable:
 class FlagName:
     name: str = None
 
+
 def _has_no_flag(model_cls: type[BaseModel], field_name: str) -> bool:
     """Check if a field has the NoFlag annotation marker."""
     info = model_cls.model_fields.get(field_name)
@@ -213,6 +216,33 @@ def has_expired(self) -> bool:
         return self.expiry is not None and self.expiry < datetime.now()
 
 
+class BasicAuth(BaseModel):
+    """Username/password login for Dremio Software deployments that cannot
+    issue PATs (e.g. Community edition). The credentials are exchanged for a
+    session token via /apiv2/login, which the REST API also accepts as a
+    Bearer token. Not applicable to Dremio Cloud."""
+
+    username: str
+    raw_password: Annotated[str, NoFlag()] = Field(
+        alias="password",
+        description="Password for basic login (can be a file path with @ prefix or direct value)",
+    )
+    expiry: Optional[datetime] = None
+    model_config = ConfigDict(validate_assignment=True, populate_by_name=True)
+
+    @property
+    def password(self) -> str:
+        return _resolve_token_file(self.raw_password)
+
+    @field_serializer("raw_password")
+    def serialize_password(self, password: str):
+        return self.raw_password if password != self.raw_password else password
+
+    @property
+    def has_expired(self) -> bool:
+        return self.expiry is not None and self.expiry < datetime.now()
+
+
 class Wlm(FlagAwareModel):
     engine_name: Optional[str] = None
 
@@ -276,6 +306,7 @@ class Dremio(FlagAwareModel):
         description="enable experimental tools",
     )
     oauth2: Optional[OAuth2] = None
+    basic_auth: Optional[BasicAuth] = None
     allow_dml: Annotated[Optional[bool], RuntimeMutable()] = Field(default=False)
     extract_org_id_from_jwt: Optional[bool] = Field(
         default=False,
@@ -343,6 +374,10 @@ def serialize_pat(self, pat: str):
     def oauth_configured(self) -> bool:
         return self.oauth2 is not None
 
+    @property
+    def basic_auth_configured(self) -> bool:
+        return self.basic_auth is not None and not self.is_cloud
+
     @property
     def oauth_supported(self) -> bool:
         return self.project_id is not None
@@ -560,6 +595,7 @@ def collect_flag_keys(model_cls: type, prefix: str = "") -> list[str]:
 # Module-level holder so configure() can pass the YAML path to the Settings constructor
 _yaml_file: Path | None = None
 
+
 @dataclass(frozen=True)
 class ConfigFingerprint:
     path: str
diff --git a/tests/api/test_basic_auth.py b/tests/api/test_basic_auth.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9d83cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/api/test_basic_auth.py
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+#
+#  Copyright (C) 2017-2025 Dremio Corporation
+#
+#  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+#  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#  limitations under the License.
+#
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+from io import BytesIO
+from json import dumps, loads
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+import pytest
+
+from dremioai.api.basic_auth import get_session_token
+from dremioai.config import settings
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def software_settings_with_basic_auth(mock_config_dir):
+    settings.configure(force=True)
+    settings.instance().dremio = settings.Dremio.model_validate(
+        {
+            "uri": "http://dremio.example.com:9047",
+            "basic_auth": {"username": "alice", "password": "s3cret"},
+        }
+    )
+    yield settings.instance()
+    settings.configure(force=True)
+
+
+class _FakeLoginResponse:
+    def __init__(self, payload: dict):
+        self._body = BytesIO(dumps(payload).encode("utf-8"))
+
+    def read(self):
+        return self._body.read()
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, *exc):
+        return False
+
+
+def test_basic_auth_settings_parse(software_settings_with_basic_auth):
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    assert dremio.basic_auth_configured
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.username == "alice"
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.password == "s3cret"
+    assert not dremio.basic_auth.has_expired
+    assert dremio.pat is None
+
+
+def test_basic_auth_password_file_resolution(
+    software_settings_with_basic_auth, tmp_path
+):
+    password_file = tmp_path / "dremio-password"
+    password_file.write_text("from-a-file\n")
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    dremio.basic_auth = settings.BasicAuth.model_validate(
+        {"username": "alice", "password": f"@{password_file}"}
+    )
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.password == "from-a-file"
+    # serialization must keep the reference, not the resolved secret
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.model_dump()["raw_password"] == f"@{password_file}"
+
+
+def test_basic_auth_not_configured_for_cloud(software_settings_with_basic_auth):
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    dremio.project_id = "01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef"
+    assert dremio.is_cloud
+    assert not dremio.basic_auth_configured
+
+
+def test_get_session_token_logs_in_and_updates_settings(
+    software_settings_with_basic_auth,
+):
+    expires_ms = int((datetime.now() + timedelta(hours=30)).timestamp() * 1000)
+    captured = {}
+
+    def fake_urlopen(request, timeout):
+        captured["url"] = request.full_url
+        captured["body"] = loads(request.data.decode("utf-8"))
+        return _FakeLoginResponse({"token": "session-token-123", "expires": expires_ms})
+
+    with patch("dremioai.api.basic_auth.urlopen", side_effect=fake_urlopen):
+        session = get_session_token()
+    session.update_settings()
+
+    assert captured["url"] == "http://dremio.example.com:9047/apiv2/login"
+    assert captured["body"] == {"userName": "alice", "password": "s3cret"}
+
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    assert dremio.pat == "session-token-123"
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.expiry is not None
+    assert not dremio.basic_auth.has_expired
+
+
+def test_expired_session_is_detected(software_settings_with_basic_auth):
+    dremio = settings.instance().dremio
+    dremio.basic_auth.expiry = datetime.now() - timedelta(minutes=1)
+    assert dremio.basic_auth.has_expired