When saving Kubernetes config from doctl with an existing API token, another token is created . Is this normal?

Is this normal?

Yes! You are seeing this due to a recent change in how DOKS Kubernetes clusters handle authentication. Rather than using certificates, they now use API tokens. This gives team administrators much finer control over how their clusters can be accessed. Rather than a shared certificate that can not be revoked, a token tied to a specific kubeconfig file can be revoked without breaking other users.

You can read more about those changes here:

• https://blog.digitalocean.com/new-on-digitalocean-kubernetes/
• https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/kubernetes/how-to/connect-to-cluster/#automatically-managed-tokens-recommended

Can we force doctl to use the provided API token throughout the full process?

I’d love to know a more about your use case. Are you calling this as part of a CI process? If you are able to reuse ~/.config/doctl/cache/exec-credential across CI runs, only one token will be generated and reused until it expires. When a token expires, it will be automatically removed from your account.

To prevent the tokens from being generated all together, you could craft a kubeconfig file using a normal DO API token:

apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority-data: <CA data>
    server: https://<cluster-id>.k8s.ondigitalocean.com
  name: do-region-cluster-name
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: do-region-cluster-name
    user: do-region-cluster-name-admin
  name: do-region-cluster-name
current-context: do-region-cluster-name
kind: Config
preferences: {}
users:
- name: do-region-cluster-name-admin
  user:
    token: <a DO api token>