# Railway CLI: RAILWAY_API_TOKEN ignored by "railway link" - "Unauthorized. Please login with railway login"

## The problem

After CLI v3.14.0, running railway link -p ... with RAILWAY_API_TOKEN set always failed with "Unauthorized. Please login with `railway login`", breaking CI pipelines that relied on token auth. Part of the confusion in the thread was the two token types: RAILWAY_API_TOKEN is an account token, while RAILWAY_TOKEN is a project token scoped to a single environment.

## The verified fix

This was a CLI regression fixed in a later release - upgrade to the latest railway CLI and railway link works with RAILWAY_API_TOKEN again (a maintainer verified the fix with a screenshot). Also use the right token for the job: RAILWAY_API_TOKEN is an account token and is what railway link needs; RAILWAY_TOKEN is a project token scoped to one environment and is intended for railway up / railway run, not for linking. If you are on the latest CLI and link still fails, double-check you are exporting an account token, not a project token. Source: https://github.com/railwayapp/cli/issues/575