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 }}/
+The Arvados API token is a secret key that enables the Arvados command line tools to authenticate themselves.
-(Replace @{{ site.arvados_api_host }}@ with the hostname of your local Arvados instance if necessary.)
+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.)
-First, open a shell on the system on which you intend to use the Arvados client (this may be your local workstation, or an Arvados VM, refer to "Accessing Arvados over ssh":{{site.baseurl}}/user/getting_started/ssh-access.html ) .
+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 user icon <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-user"></span> in the upper right corner to access the user settings menu, and click on the menu item _Manage API token_ to go to the "api client authorizations" page.
+In the Arvados Workbench, click on the dropdown menu icon <span class="fa fa-lg fa-user"></span> in the upper right corner of the top navigation menu to access the _Account Management_ menu. Then, in the pop-up menu, click on the menu item *Get API token*. This will open a dialog box that lists your current token and the instructions for setting up your environment.
-h2. The easy way
+h2. Setting environment variables
-For your convenience, the "api client authorizations" page on Workbench provides a "Help" tab that provides a command you may copy and paste directly into the shell. It will look something like this:
+In the dialog box opened after clicking on the *Get API token* menu item, there is a sequence of commands you may copy and paste directly into the shell. It will look something as the following.
-bc. ### Pasting the following lines at a shell prompt will allow Arvados SDKs
-### to authenticate to your account, youraddress@example.com
-read ARVADOS_API_TOKEN <<EOF
-2jv9346o396exampledonotuseexampledonotuseexes7j1ld
-EOF
-export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN ARVADOS_API_HOST={{ site.arvados_api_host }}
+bc. HISTIGNORE=$HISTIGNORE:'export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=*'
+export ARVADOS_API_TOKEN=2jv9346o396exampledonotuseexampledonotuseexes7j1ld
+export ARVADOS_API_HOST={{ site.arvados_api_host }}
+unset ARVADOS_API_HOST_INSECURE
-* The @read@ command takes the contents of stdin and puts it into the shell variable named on the command line.
-* The @<<EOF@ notation means read each line on stdin and pipe it to the command, terminating on reading the line @EOF@.
-* The @export@ command puts a local shell variable into the environment that will be inherited by child processes (e.g. the @arv@ client).
-
-h2. Setting the environment manually
-
-Alternately, look for the column *api_token* contains the actual token string that you will use. Copy the value of *api_token* for the first row onto the clipboard.
-
-<notextile>
-<pre><code>$ <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.
-
-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>
+* The @export@ command puts a local shell variable into the environment that will be inherited by child processes such as the @arv@ client.
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 with instructions above, you can use these commands to create an Arvados configuration file:
+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:
<notextile>
<pre><code>$ <span class="userinput">echo "ARVADOS_API_HOST=$ARVADOS_API_HOST" > ~/.config/arvados/settings.conf</span>
</code></pre>
</notextile>
+* The output-redirection operator @>@ in the first command will cause the target file @~/.config/arvados/settings.conf@ to be created anew, wiping out the content of any existing file at that path.
+* The @>>@ operator in the second command appends to the target file.
+
h2. .bashrc
-Alternately, you may add the declarations of @ARVADOS_API_HOST@ and @ARVADOS_API_TOKEN@ to the @~/.bashrc@ file on the system on which you intend to use the Arvados client. If you have already put the variables into the environment with instructions above, you can use these commands to append the environment variables to your @~/.bashrc@:
+Alternately, you may add the definitions of @ARVADOS_API_HOST@ and @ARVADOS_API_TOKEN@ to the @~/.bashrc@ file on the system where you intend to use the Arvados client. If you have already put the variables into the environment following the instructions above, you can use the commands below to append to your @~/.bashrc@, which tells Bash to export them as environment variables in newly-started interactive shell sessions:
<notextile>
<pre><code>$ <span class="userinput">echo "export ARVADOS_API_HOST=$ARVADOS_API_HOST" >> ~/.bashrc</span>
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