# How to use repository create from-config
**URL:** https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365
**Category:** General Topics
**Created:** [October 19, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365 "2023-10-19T17:47:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RhysGoodwin](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/RhysGoodwin)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/1 "2023-10-19T17:47:55Z")
Hi there,
I have a config file like this:
```auto
{
"storage": {
"type": "s3",
"config": {
"bucket": "mybucket",
"endpoint": "s3.amazonaws.com",
"accessKeyID": "AKIxyxyxyx",
"secretAccessKey": "keykeykey",
"sessionToken": "",
"region": "ap-southeast-2"
}
},
"caching": {
"cacheDirectory": "E:\\kopia\\jobs\\mgmt\\cache",
"maxCacheSize": 5242880000,
"maxMetadataCacheSize": 5242880000,
"maxListCacheDuration": 30
},
"hostname": "mgmt01",
"username": "iac",
"description": "Repository in S3: xyxyxyx",
"enableActions": false,
"formatBlobCacheDuration": 900000000000
}
```
I thought I should be able to do something like:
kopia repository create from-config --config-file=“.\config\repository\_mgmt.config” -p repopwd’
But it complains about token:
`ERROR can't connect to storage: one of --token-file, --token-stdin or --token must be provided`
I’m not sure what the --token or --token-file option is for. Does this relate to the repo password?
I did try pointing the --token-file to `config\repository_mgmt.config.kopia-password` which contains the bas64 encoded repo password. but no go.
It seems to me that between the config file and provided repo password I have everything required to create a repo but I’m clearly doing something wrong.
The use case here is that I’m generating kopia packages using Ansible. I.e. the config file is being built from a template.
Any guidance would be much apricated.
Cheers.
Rhys
---
### Author:  [@wayland](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/wayland)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/2 "2023-12-02T01:33:22Z")
Did you find a solution? I am trying to do same thing but with connecting a repository. This page does not tell how it is done and no help is found arond the web
> **[repository connect from-config](https://kopia.io/docs/reference/command-line/common/repository-connect-from-config/)**
>
> $ kopia repository connect from-config Connect to repository in the provided configuration file
> Flag Short Default Help --cache-directory Cache directory --\[no-\]check-for-updates true Periodically check for Kopia updates on GitHub...
---
### Author:  [@RhysGoodwin](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/RhysGoodwin)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/3 "2023-12-02T03:20:39Z")
No, I haven’t unfortunately. I’ve worked around it by writing out the repository.config to its target location then my python deployment script reads the file with json load and builds a “create repo” command which then writes back to the same config file.
The doco could use some improvement. I’ve really no idea what --token or --token-file mean.
Ngā mihi
Rhys
---
### Author:  [@wayland](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/wayland)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/4 "2023-12-02T04:11:06Z")
I actually found a solution finally, brought to you by bing chat ☹
Basically " --config-file" is wrong in this context.
`kopia.exe repository connect from-config --file=CONFIG-FILE`
---
### Author:  [@RhysGoodwin](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/RhysGoodwin)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 4:16am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/5 "2023-12-02T04:16:25Z")
In my case the repo doesn’t exist. Will the above create it?
---
### Author:  [@wayland](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/wayland)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 4:19am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/6 "2023-12-02T04:19:26Z")
Take a look at this, [Getting Started Guide | Kopia](https://kopia.io/docs/getting-started/)
Maybe you need to pass the kopia password in the terminal, then create the repo and use the lines I used to connect and create additional snapshots on the command line using a config.
---
### Author:  [@RhysGoodwin](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/RhysGoodwin)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/7 "2023-12-02T04:55:42Z")
Yes, that’s what I’m doing, but in the documentation, there is a **repository create from-config** command as per this link:
[repository create from-config | Kopia](https://kopia.io/docs/reference/command-line/common/repository-create-from-config/)
And I would have thought this would allow creating the repo from a config file. Afterall, the config file contains all the required info to do so but I can’t get it to work. Or am I misunderstanding what the command is for?
---
### Author:  [@wayland](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/wayland)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 6:58am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/8 "2023-12-02T06:58:43Z")
> [@RhysGoodwin](#):
>
> –config-file=“.\config\repository\_mgmt.config” -p repopwd’
That was the intention of my post try `--file` instead of `--config-file`
---
### Author:  [@RhysGoodwin](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/RhysGoodwin)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 8:11am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/9 "2023-12-02T08:11:23Z")
Thanks Wayland. I’m 99% sure I have dried --file and a whole range of variations but I think the main hang up was the token options which are required. I thought token-file might be the base64 encoded version of the repo password, but suspect I’m way off.
---
### Author:  [@wayland](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/wayland)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/10 "2023-12-02T19:21:42Z")
That was what I was trying to get at, the `connect` option (which was what I needed) seemed to require a token with --config-file until I discarded that and used the --file option, then it stopped complaining about token related stuff and relied only on the actual config file.
---
### Author:  [@martinpk](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/martinpk)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2024, 11:10pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-to-use-repository-create-from-config/2365/11 "2024-01-20T23:10:05Z")
Searching the documentation for “token”, the second hit is this: [Command Line | Kopia](https://kopia.io/docs/reference/command-line/#quick-reconnection-to-repository) (Quick Reconnection To Repository), which shows where to find the token in the output of the `kopia repo status -t` command.
If you want to extract the token programmatically, you can use: `kopia repository status -t -s | grep token | head -1 | awk '{print $7}'`
Hope this helps!