A Personal Access Token (PAT) is a secure way of accessing services via the command line or an API.  They are a more secure alternative to a standard username and password .

How to get a token

1. Login to the EIDC catalogue.
2. Go to your profile page  
3. Click on the "API tokens" link
4. A page will open which contains a form.  Fill in the form - give your token a name (this is a label for your own use and can be anything you like) and set the number of days for which you want the token to be valid (max 364).

When you click the Create token button, your new token will be created and displayed on screen.  It will look something like pat_8MsKbGcQevdYM91_pHUD-w20kg_DdvbNIqeKzkeDp1E
Make a copy of it, as you will not be able to access it again

What if I forget or lose my token?

If you forget or lose your token, you will not be able to retrieve it and you will have to create a new one.  You should also revoke it (see below).

Revoking a token

Revoking a token, effectively deletes it and prevents it from being used again.

You should revoke a token if you lose it, or you suspect it has been compromised, leaked, or exposed in logs or public repositories. You should also revoke your token if you definitely know that it is no longer needed.

To revoke a token, go to the tokens page in your user profile. Your existing and past token(s) will be listed

Find the token you want to revoke and click on the Revoke link. This is permanent - once revoked, a token cannot be recovered.