Create an API key

  • POST also PUT /_security/api_key
Auth

Create an API key for access without requiring basic authentication.

Important

If the credential that is used to authenticate this request is an API key, the derived API key cannot have any privileges. If you specify privileges, the API returns an error.

A successful request returns a JSON structure that contains the API key, its unique id, and its name. If applicable, it also returns expiration information for the API key in milliseconds.

Note

By default, API keys never expire. You can specify expiration information when you create the API keys.

The API keys are created by the Elasticsearch API key service, which is automatically enabled. To configure or turn off the API key service, refer to API key service setting documentation.

About API key service settings

Required authorization

Cluster privileges manage_own_api_key

Query parameters

refresh enum

If true (the default) then refresh the affected shards to make this operation visible to search, if wait_for then wait for a refresh to make this operation visible to search, if false then do nothing with refreshes.

Values: true false wait_for

Request body

expiration string

The expiration time for the API key. By default, API keys never expire.

name string required

A name for the API key. It is required, and it cannot be longer than 256 characters, begin or end with whitespace, or begin with an underscore.

role_descriptors map string to object

An array of role descriptors for this API key. When it is not specified or it is an empty array, the API key will have a point in time snapshot of permissions of the authenticated user. If you supply role descriptors, the resultant permissions are an intersection of API keys permissions and the authenticated user's permissions thereby limiting the access scope for API keys. The structure of role descriptor is the same as the request for the create role API. For more details, refer to the create or update roles API.

Note

Due to the way in which this permission intersection is calculated, it is not possible to create an API key that is a child of another API key, unless the derived key is created without any privileges. In this case, you must explicitly specify a role descriptor with no privileges. The derived API key can be used for authentication; it will not have authority to call Elasticsearch APIs.

Reference
<string> object
cluster union anyOf[]

A list of cluster privileges. These privileges define the cluster level actions that API keys are able to execute.

Values: all cancel_task manage manage_api_key manage_behavioral_analytics manage_enrich manage_esql manage_index_templates manage_inference manage_ingest_pipelines manage_logstash_pipelines manage_ml
indices object[]

A list of indices permissions entries.

field_security object

The document fields that the owners of the role have read access to.

Reference
except union oneOf
One of: string[] or string
grant union oneOf
One of: string[] or string
names union string | string[] required

A list of indices (or index name patterns) to which the permissions in this entry apply.

privileges union anyOf[] required

The index level privileges that owners of the role have on the specified indices.

Values: all auto_configure create create_doc create_index create_view delete delete_index delete_view index maintenance manage manage_data_stream_lifecycle manage_view monitor none read read_view_metadata view_index_metadata write
query union oneOf

A search query that defines the documents the owners of the role have access to. A document within the specified indices must match this query for it to be accessible by the owners of the role.

One of:
applications object[]

A list of application privilege entries

application string required

The name of the application to which this entry applies.

privileges string[] required

A list of strings, where each element is the name of an application privilege or action.

resources string[] required

A list resources to which the privileges are applied.

metadata object

Optional meta-data. Within the metadata object, keys that begin with _ are reserved for system usage.

run_as string[]

A list of users that the API keys can impersonate. NOTE: In Elastic Cloud Serverless, the run-as feature is disabled. For API compatibility, you can still specify an empty run_as field, but a non-empty list will be rejected.

Reference
description string

Optional description of the role descriptor

restriction object

Restriction for when the role descriptor is allowed to be effective.

workflows union anyOf[] required

A list of workflows to which the API key is restricted. NOTE: In order to use a role restriction, an API key must be created with a single role descriptor.

Values: search_application_query
transient_metadata map string to object
metadata object

Arbitrary metadata that you want to associate with the API key. It supports nested data structure. Within the metadata object, keys beginning with _ are reserved for system usage.

Response

application/json
api_key string required

Generated API key.

expiration number

Expiration in milliseconds for the API key.

id string required

Unique ID for this API key.

name string required

Specifies the name for this API key.

encoded string required

API key credentials which is the base64-encoding of the UTF-8 representation of id and api_key joined by a colon (:).