Registering conda for your organization

Organizations that register conda clients gain clearer visibility into how conda is being used across their teams to help ensure usage aligns with license agreements and compliance requirements.

If you would like to streamline registration for your organization, contact your customer success manager to discuss options for organization-wide bulk registration. They can recommend approaches that fit your needs and minimize the steps required from your organization members.

Distributing the organization token

After you complete bulk registration setup, Anaconda provides you with an organization token. When this token is present on a machine, the conda client identifies itself as belonging to your organization, which satisfies the registration requirement. Your organization members do not need to log in to Anaconda or create an account.

To distribute the token, save it in a file named org_token in the system conda configuration directory on each machine:

• Linux and macOS: /etc/conda/org_token
• Windows: C:\ProgramData\conda\org_token

The conda client reads the first non-blank line of the file as the token. Token values can contain only letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores, up to a maximum of 36 characters. The client discards values that do not match this format.

The system directory is the recommended location because it applies to every user and every conda environment on the machine. Most organizations distribute this file using mobile device management (MDM) software or their standard configuration management tooling.

All locations checked for the token file

The conda client checks the following directories, in order, for both org_token and .org_token:

• /etc/conda and /var/lib/conda (Linux and macOS) or C:\ProgramData\conda (Windows)
• The root directory of the conda installation
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/conda
• ~/.config/conda
• ~/.conda
• $CONDA_PREFIX (the active environment)

User-level directories such as ~/.conda are an option when you cannot write to system directories, but the file must then be deployed separately for each user account.

To keep registration reporting reliable, Anaconda recommends also distributing a condarc file in the same directory with the following contents:

anaconda_anon_usage: true #!final
aggressive_update_packages: [anaconda-anon-usage]

Conda accepts both condarc and .condarc in system directories; the non-dotted form keeps the file visible when browsing the directory.

The #!final flag prevents organization members from overriding these settings in their own .condarc files. The first setting keeps telemetry enabled so that the token continues to be sent, and the second keeps the anaconda-anon-usage package up to date.

If a machine has more than one organization token (for example, one in /etc/conda/org_token and another in the ANACONDA_ANON_USAGE_ORG_TOKEN environment variable), the client sends all of them. One token never overrides another.

The organization token is an identifier, not a credential. It cannot be used to access channels, packages, or other Anaconda resources.

Verifying token distribution

After distributing the token, verify on a recipient machine that the conda client picks it up. Any machine with the anaconda-anon-usage package installed, including machines where anaconda-registration is present, provides a command for inspecting tokens:

anaconda-anon-usage --detail

Confirm that the output contains an o/ entry showing your organization token. The entry also lists the token’s source, which should be the file you distributed.

If the entry is missing, print the exact directories the client checks and confirm that your file is in one of them:

anaconda-anon-usage --paths

If the file is in a checked directory but the token still does not appear, the value might not match the required format. Set the ANACONDA_ANON_USAGE_DEBUG environment variable to 1 and rerun the command to see diagnostic messages, including any discarded tokens.

Registering member machines

Once the organization token is in place on a machine, instruct your organization members to follow the steps below to register their conda client:

1. Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).

2. If necessary, activate your base environment:

   conda activate base
   

3. Install anaconda-registration:

   conda install --name base anaconda-registration --channel https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/anaconda-tools --override-channels
   
   The --channel and --override-channels command options allow installation to succeed, despite the registration block.

With the organization token in place and anaconda-registration installed, the conda client identifies itself as part of your organization whenever it connects to Anaconda.

Registration does not grant access to licensed channels. Members who need access to your organization’s channels must also set an access token. For more information, see Site token management.

Using an organization token in automated workflow environments

If your organization members use Anaconda services as part of automated workflows or CI/CD pipelines, or if they are using conda within Docker builds on their desktop, they can use the organization token provided by Anaconda during bulk registration setup to register their conda clients programmatically.

In the automated workflow system, set the ANACONDA_ANON_USAGE_ORG_TOKEN environment variable:

export ANACONDA_ANON_USAGE_ORG_TOKEN="<YOUR_ORG_TOKEN>"

Store the token in your automation platform’s secret manager rather than hardcoding it in scripts. In Docker builds, do not set the token with ENV or ARG instructions, which persist the value in image layers. Instead, mount the value as a build secret and export it within the RUN command.