diff --git a/llm/utils/generate_data_model.py b/llm/utils/generate_data_model.py
index f595e4e..80ad35e 100644
--- a/llm/utils/generate_data_model.py
+++ b/llm/utils/generate_data_model.py
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ def set_values(self, params: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
         self.skip_download = params.skip_download
         self.debug = params.debug
 
-        self.repo_info.hf_token = params.hf_token
+        self.repo_info.hf_token = params.hf_token or os.environ.get("HF_TOKEN")
         self.repo_info.repo_id = params.repo_id
         self.repo_info.repo_version = params.repo_version
 
@@ -125,7 +125,8 @@ def validate_hf_token(self) -> None:
                 (
                     "HuggingFace Hub token is required for llama download. "
                     "Please specify it using --hf_token=<your token> argument "
-                    ". Refer https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/security-tokens"
+                    "or, set it as an environment variable 'HF_TOKEN'. Refer "
+                    "https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/security-tokens"
                 )
             )
             sys.exit(1)