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 %}
+
+The Arvados API token is a secret key that enables the Arvados command line tools to authenticate themselves.
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.)
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).
-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 your account menu, then 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 set up your environment.
+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.
h2. Setting environment variables
-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 as the following.
+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