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.

Read the reference documentation

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

A name for the API key.

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 create_snapshot cross_cluster_replication cross_cluster_search delegate_pki grant_api_key manage manage_api_key manage_autoscaling manage_behavioral_analytics manage_ccr
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 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 cross_cluster_replication cross_cluster_replication_internal delete delete_index index maintenance manage
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:
allow_restricted_indices boolean · default: false

Set to true if using wildcard or regular expressions for patterns that cover restricted indices. Implicitly, restricted indices have limited privileges that can cause pattern tests to fail. If restricted indices are explicitly included in the names list, Elasticsearch checks privileges against these indices regardless of the value set for allow_restricted_indices.

remote_indices object[]

A list of indices permissions for remote clusters.

clusters union oneOf required

A list of cluster aliases to which the permissions in this entry apply.

One of: string[] or string
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 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 cross_cluster_replication cross_cluster_replication_internal delete delete_index index maintenance manage
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:
allow_restricted_indices boolean · default: false

Set to true if using wildcard or regular expressions for patterns that cover restricted indices. Implicitly, restricted indices have limited privileges that can cause pattern tests to fail. If restricted indices are explicitly included in the names list, Elasticsearch checks privileges against these indices regardless of the value set for allow_restricted_indices.

remote_cluster object[]

A list of cluster permissions for remote clusters. NOTE: This is limited a subset of the cluster permissions.

clusters union oneOf required

A list of cluster aliases to which the permissions in this entry apply.

One of: string[] or string
privileges enum[] required

The cluster level privileges that owners of the role have on the remote cluster.

Values: monitor_enrich monitor_stats
global object

An object defining global privileges. A global privilege is a form of cluster privilege that is request-aware. Support for global privileges is currently limited to the management of application privileges.

application object required
manage object required
applications string[] required
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 (:).