navsection: userguide
title: "Getting an API token"
...
+{% comment %}
+Copyright (C) The Arvados Authors. All rights reserved.
-The Arvados API token is a secret key that enables the @arv@ command line client to access Arvados with the proper permissions.
+SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-3.0
+{% endcomment %}
-Access the Arvados Workbench using this link: "https://{{ site.arvados_workbench_host }}/":https://{{ site.arvados_workbench_host }}/ (Replace @{{ site.arvados_api_host }}@ with the hostname of your local Arvados instance if necessary.)
+The Arvados API token is a secret key that enables the Arvados command line tools to authenticate themselves.
-Open a shell on the system where you want to use the Arvados client. This may be your local workstation, or an Arvados virtual machine accessed with SSH ("Unix":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/ssh-access-unix.html#login or "Windows":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/ssh-access-windows.html#login).
+Access the Arvados Workbench using this link: "{{site.arvados_workbench_host}}/":{{site.arvados_workbench_host}}/ (Replace the hostname portion with the hostname of your local Arvados instance if necessary.)
-Click on the link with your _email address_ in the upper right corner to access the user settings menu, and click on the menu item *Manage account* to go to the account management page. On the *Manage account* page, you will see the *Current Token* panel, which lists your current token and instructions to setup your environment.
+Open a shell on the system where you want to use the Arvados client. This may be your local workstation, or an Arvados virtual machine accessed with "Webshell":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/vm-login-with-webshell.html or SSH (instructions for "Unix":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/ssh-access-unix.html#login or "Windows":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/ssh-access-windows.html#login).
-h2. The easy way
+In the Arvados Workbench, click on the dropdown menu icon <span class="fa fa-lg fa-user"></span> <span class="caret"></span> in the upper right corner of the top navigation menu to access the user settings menu, and click on the menu item *Current token*, which lists your current token and instructions to set up your environment.
-For your convenience, the "Manage account" page on Workbench provides the "Current Token" panel that includes a command you may copy and paste directly into the shell. It will look something like this:
+h2. Setting environment variables
-bc. Paste the following lines at a shell prompt to set up the necessary environment for Arvados SDKs to authenticate to your account, you@example.com
-HISTIGNORE=$HISTIGNORE:'export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=*'
+The *Current token* page, accessed using the dropdown menu icon <span class="fa fa-lg fa-user"></span> <span class="caret"></span> in the upper right corner of the top navigation menu, includes a command you may copy and paste directly into the shell. It will look something as the following.
+
+bc. HISTIGNORE=$HISTIGNORE:'export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=*'
export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=2jv9346o396exampledonotuseexampledonotuseexes7j1ld
export ARVADOS_API_HOST={{ site.arvados_api_host }}
-export ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE=true
+unset ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE
* The @export@ command puts a local shell variable into the environment that will be inherited by child processes such as the @arv@ client.
-h2. Setting the environment manually
-
-Alternately, copy the value of *ARVADOS_API_TOKEN* from the _Current Token_ panel onto the clipboard.
-
-<notextile>
-<pre><code>$ <span class="userinput">export ARVADOS_API_HOST={{ site.arvados_api_host }}</span>
-$ <span class="userinput">export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=2jv9346o3966345u7ueuim7a1zaaoueo3w90tzq3gx0es7j1ld</span>
-</code></pre>
-</notextile>
-
-* @ARVADOS_API_HOST@ tells @arv@ which host to connect to.
-* @ARVADOS_API_TOKEN@ is the secret key used by the Arvados API server to authenticate access. Its value is the text you copied from the *api_token* column on the Workbench.
-
-If you are connecting to a development instance with a unverified/self-signed SSL certificate, set this variable to skip SSL validation:
-
-<notextile>
-<pre><code>$ <span class="userinput">export ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE=1
-</code></pre>
-</notextile>
-
h2. settings.conf
Arvados tools will also look for the authentication information in @~/.config/arvados/settings.conf@. If you have already put the variables into the environment following the instructions above, you can use these commands to create an Arvados configuration file:
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