date	2000-01-01 00:00:00 +0000
title	Machine
author	bradrydzewski
weight	60
aliases	/manage/user/machine/ /administration/user/machine
description	Learn how and when to create machine accounts.

The machine account is intended to be used exclusively for automation and integrations. Since this account won’t be used by a human, and will not have a corresponding account in your source code management system, it is referred to as a machine user.

Create Accounts

You can manage machine accounts using the command line utility. Please see the command line tools [documentation]({{< relref "/cli/install.md" >}}) for installation instructions.

1. Generate a token for your machine user. The machine account can use this token for API access.

   $ openssl rand -hex 16
     fe8c402a51e6629aa1f43a4234afee81
   

2. Create a machine account with username prometheus:

   $ drone user add prometheus \
     --machine \
     --token=fe8c402a51e6629aa1f43a4234afee81
   

3. Create the machine account with administrative privileges:

   $ drone user add prometheus \
     --admin \
     --machine \
     --token=fe8c402a51e6629aa1f43a4234afee81