diff --git a/new-api/init-channels.sh b/new-api/init-channels.sh
index 8c2197d..06363e9 100755
--- a/new-api/init-channels.sh
+++ b/new-api/init-channels.sh
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# Configures new-api channels and token via the admin API.
+# Configures new-api channels and API token via the admin API.
 # Run once after first boot: ./new-api/init-channels.sh
 #
 # Requires these env vars (or .env file in project root):
-#   NEW_API_USERNAME      - admin username (default: root)
 #   NEW_API_PASSWORD      - admin password
 #   DEEPINFRA_API_KEY
 #   SILICONFLOW_API_KEY
 #   OPENROUTER_API_KEY
 #   GROQ_API_KEY
 #   CEREBRAS_API_KEY
+#
+# Optional:
+#   NEW_API_USERNAME      - admin username (default: root)
+#   NEW_API_BASE          - API base URL (default: http://localhost:4000)
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
@@ -28,9 +31,10 @@ API_BASE="${NEW_API_BASE:-http://localhost:4000}"
 USERNAME="${NEW_API_USERNAME:-root}"
 PASSWORD="${NEW_API_PASSWORD:?Set NEW_API_PASSWORD to the admin password}"
 COOKIE_JAR=$(mktemp)
+USER_ID=""
 trap 'rm -f "$COOKIE_JAR"' EXIT
 
-# ── Login to get session cookie ─────────────────────────
+# ── Login and get user ID ───────────────────────────────
 login() {
   echo "Logging in as ${USERNAME}..."
   local resp
@@ -47,10 +51,22 @@ print(json.dumps({'username': sys.argv[1], 'password': sys.argv[2]}))
     echo "ERROR: Login failed: ${resp}"
     exit 1
   fi
-  echo "  Logged in."
+
+  USER_ID=$(echo "$resp" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['data']['id'])")
+  echo "  Logged in (user ID: ${USER_ID})."
 }
 
-# ── Helper ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+# ── API call helper (cookie + New-Api-User header) ─────
+api_call() {
+  local endpoint="$1"
+  shift
+  curl -s -b "$COOKIE_JAR" \
+    -H "New-Api-User: ${USER_ID}" \
+    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+    "${API_BASE}${endpoint}" "$@"
+}
+
+# ── Create channel ──────────────────────────────────────
 create_channel() {
   local name="$1" type="$2" key="$3" base_url="$4" priority="$5" models="$6" model_mapping="$7"
 
@@ -75,10 +91,7 @@ print(json.dumps({
 " "$type" "$name" "$key" "$base_url" "$models" "$model_mapping" "$priority")
 
   local resp success
-  resp=$(curl -s "${API_BASE}/api/channel/" \
-    -b "$COOKIE_JAR" \
-    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-    -d "$payload")
+  resp=$(api_call "/api/channel/" -d "$payload")
 
   success=$(echo "$resp" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('success', False))")
   if [[ "$success" == "True" ]]; then
@@ -89,7 +102,7 @@ print(json.dumps({
   fi
 }
 
-# Wait for new-api to be ready
+# ── Wait for new-api ────────────────────────────────────
 echo "Waiting for new-api at ${API_BASE}..."
 for i in $(seq 1 30); do
   if curl -sf "${API_BASE}/" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
@@ -103,10 +116,32 @@ for i in $(seq 1 30); do
   sleep 2
 done
 
-# Login first
+# ── Login ───────────────────────────────────────────────
 login
 
-# ── Channel: DeepInfra (priority 1) ────────────────────
+# ── Generate system access token for future use ─────────
+echo ""
+echo "Generating system access token..."
+ACCESS_TOKEN_RESP=$(api_call "/api/user/token")
+ACCESS_TOKEN=$(echo "$ACCESS_TOKEN_RESP" | python3 -c "
+import sys, json
+data = json.load(sys.stdin)
+if data.get('success'):
+    print(data.get('data', ''))
+else:
+    print('')
+" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
+
+if [[ -n "$ACCESS_TOKEN" ]]; then
+  echo "  Access token: ${ACCESS_TOKEN}"
+  echo "  Save as NEW_API_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env for future API use."
+  echo "  Usage: -H 'Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}' -H 'New-Api-User: ${USER_ID}'"
+else
+  echo "  Could not generate access token (non-critical, using session)."
+fi
+
+# ── Channels ────────────────────────────────────────────
+
 create_channel "DeepInfra" 1 \
   "${DEEPINFRA_API_KEY:?}" \
   "https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai" \
@@ -114,7 +149,6 @@ create_channel "DeepInfra" 1 \
   "deepseek-v3.2,deepseek-r1,gpt-oss,gpt-oss-20b,nemotron-super,nemotron-nano,devstral,glm-4.6,glm-4.7,glm-5,kimi-k2,kimi-k2.5" \
   '{"deepseek-v3.2":"deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2","deepseek-r1":"deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1","gpt-oss":"openai/gpt-oss-120b","gpt-oss-20b":"openai/gpt-oss-20b","nemotron-super":"nvidia/Llama-3.3-Nemotron-Super-49B-v1.5","nemotron-nano":"nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-Nano-9B-v2","devstral":"mistralai/Devstral-Small-2505","glm-4.6":"zai-org/GLM-4.6","glm-4.7":"zai-org/GLM-4.7","glm-5":"zai-org/GLM-5","kimi-k2":"moonshotai/Kimi-K2-Instruct-0905","kimi-k2.5":"moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5"}'
 
-# ── Channel: SiliconFlow (priority 2) ──────────────────
 create_channel "SiliconFlow" 1 \
   "${SILICONFLOW_API_KEY:?}" \
   "https://api.siliconflow.com/v1" \
@@ -122,7 +156,6 @@ create_channel "SiliconFlow" 1 \
   "deepseek-v3.2,glm-4.7,kimi-k2,qwen3-coder,qwen3-coder-30b" \
   '{"deepseek-v3.2":"deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2","glm-4.7":"THUDM/GLM-4-32B-0414","kimi-k2":"moonshotai/Kimi-K2-Instruct-0905","qwen3-coder":"Qwen/Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct","qwen3-coder-30b":"Qwen/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct"}'
 
-# ── Channel: OpenRouter (priority 3) ───────────────────
 create_channel "OpenRouter" 1 \
   "${OPENROUTER_API_KEY:?}" \
   "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1" \
@@ -130,7 +163,6 @@ create_channel "OpenRouter" 1 \
   "deepseek-v3.2,deepseek-v3-free,kimi-k2.5,minimax-m2.5,gpt-4.1-mini,gpt-4.1,gemini-3-flash-preview,gemini-2.5-pro,claude-sonnet,trinity-large-preview" \
   '{"deepseek-v3.2":"deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324","deepseek-v3-free":"deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324:free","kimi-k2.5":"moonshotai/kimi-k2.5","minimax-m2.5":"minimax/minimax-m2.5","gpt-4.1-mini":"openai/gpt-4.1-mini","gpt-4.1":"openai/gpt-4.1","gemini-3-flash-preview":"google/gemini-3-flash-preview","gemini-2.5-pro":"google/gemini-2.5-pro-preview","claude-sonnet":"anthropic/claude-sonnet-4","trinity-large-preview":"arcee-ai/trinity-large-preview"}'
 
-# ── Channel: Groq (priority 1) ─────────────────────────
 create_channel "Groq" 1 \
   "${GROQ_API_KEY:?}" \
   "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1" \
@@ -138,7 +170,6 @@ create_channel "Groq" 1 \
   "llama-3.3-70b" \
   '{"llama-3.3-70b":"llama-3.3-70b-versatile"}'
 
-# ── Channel: Cerebras (priority 1) ─────────────────────
 create_channel "Cerebras" 1 \
   "${CEREBRAS_API_KEY:?}" \
   "https://api.cerebras.ai/v1" \
@@ -146,13 +177,10 @@ create_channel "Cerebras" 1 \
   "llama-3.3-70b-cerebras" \
   '{"llama-3.3-70b-cerebras":"llama-3.3-70b"}'
 
-# ── Create API token for Open WebUI ────────────────────
+# ── Create API token for Open WebUI ─────────────────────
 echo ""
 echo "Creating API token for Open WebUI..."
-TOKEN_RESP=$(curl -s "${API_BASE}/api/token/" \
-  -b "$COOKIE_JAR" \
-  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-  -d "$(python3 -c "
+TOKEN_RESP=$(api_call "/api/token/" -d "$(python3 -c "
 import json
 print(json.dumps({
     'name': 'open-webui',
@@ -170,23 +198,21 @@ else:
     print('FAILED: ' + data.get('message', 'unknown error'))
 " 2>/dev/null || echo "FAILED: could not parse response")
 
-echo "  Token: ${TOKEN_KEY}"
-
 echo ""
 echo "══════════════════════════════════════"
-echo "Channel setup complete!"
+echo "Setup complete!"
 echo ""
 if [[ "$TOKEN_KEY" != FAILED* ]]; then
   echo "Open WebUI API key: ${TOKEN_KEY}"
   echo "Set OPENWEBUI_API_KEY=${TOKEN_KEY} in your .env"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Test:"
+  echo "  curl ${API_BASE}/v1/chat/completions \\"
+  echo "    -H 'Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN_KEY}' \\"
+  echo "    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \\"
+  echo "    -d '{\"model\":\"deepseek-v3.2\",\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"hi\"}]}'"
+else
+  echo "Token creation: ${TOKEN_KEY}"
+  echo "Create a token manually in the new-api UI."
 fi
-echo ""
-echo "Next steps:"
-echo "  1. Verify channels at ${API_BASE}"
-echo "  2. Test a model:"
-echo "     curl ${API_BASE}/v1/chat/completions \\"
-echo "       -H 'Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN_KEY}' \\"
-echo "       -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \\"
-echo "       -d '{\"model\":\"deepseek-v3.2\",\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"hi\"}]}'"
-echo "  3. Restart Open WebUI with the new API key"
 echo "══════════════════════════════════════"