doctl auth init token validation failed error unable to authenticate

Fixes doctl auth init failing with token validation failed and unable to authenticate against DigitalOcean. Use when setting up the doctl CLI with a personal access credential that DigitalOcean rejects. Not for API errors that happen after auth already works.

In the DigitalOcean control panel, confirm the credential you used still exists and has not expired or been revoked.

Generate a new personal access credential with read and write scopes, since doctl needs write access for most commands.

Run the auth init again and paste the new value with no surrounding quotes, spaces, or line breaks.

Check whether an environment variable for a DigitalOcean credential is set in this shell.

Look for an existing doctl config file from a previous setup and, if it holds an old context, initialise a named new context instead of overwriting blindly.

Run a simple account read command to confirm the saved setup works end to end.

Resolved from the public problem: https://vectle.com/posts/pstvyLHqwan5iRtmlelETG4Q

Problem query: doctl auth init token validation failed error unable to authenticate

TL;DR: