1.4.0+: This API documentation is for Consul versions 1.4.0 and later. The documentation for the legacy ACL API is here

» ACL HTTP API

The /acl endpoints are used to manage ACL tokens and policies in Consul, bootstrap the ACL system, check ACL replication status, and translate rules. There are additional pages for managing tokens and policies with the /acl endpoints.

For more information on how to setup ACLs, please see the ACL Guide.

» Bootstrap ACLs

This endpoint does a special one-time bootstrap of the ACL system, making the first management token if the acl.tokens.master configuration entry is not specified in the Consul server configuration and if the cluster has not been bootstrapped previously. This is available in Consul 0.9.1 and later, and requires all Consul servers to be upgraded in order to operate.

This provides a mechanism to bootstrap ACLs without having any secrets present in Consul's configuration files.

Method	Path	Produces
`PUT`	`/acl/bootstrap`	`application/json`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`none`	`none`	`none`

» Sample Request

$ curl \
    --request PUT \
    http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/bootstrap

» Sample Response

Deprecated - The ID field in the response is for legacy compatibility and is a copy of the SecretID field. New applications should ignore the ID field as it may be removed in a future major Consul version.

{
    "ID": "527347d3-9653-07dc-adc0-598b8f2b0f4d",
    "AccessorID": "b5b1a918-50bc-fc46-dec2-d481359da4e3",
    "SecretID": "527347d3-9653-07dc-adc0-598b8f2b0f4d",
    "Description": "Bootstrap Token (Global Management)",
    "Policies": [
        {
            "ID": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001",
            "Name": "global-management"
        }
    ],
    "Local": false,
    "CreateTime": "2018-10-24T10:34:20.843397-04:00",
    "Hash": "oyrov6+GFLjo/KZAfqgxF/X4J/3LX0435DOBy9V22I0=",
    "CreateIndex": 12,
    "ModifyIndex": 12
}

You can detect if something has interfered with the ACL bootstrapping process by checking the response code. A 200 response means that the bootstrap was a success, and a 403 means that the cluster has already been bootstrapped, at which point you should consider the cluster in a potentially compromised state.

The returned token will have unrestricted privileges to manage all details of the system. It can then be used to further configure the ACL system. Please see the ACL Guide for more details.

» Check ACL Replication

This endpoint returns the status of the ACL replication processes in the datacenter. This is intended to be used by operators or by automation checking to discover the health of ACL replication.

Please see the ACL Guide replication section for more details.

Method	Path	Produces
`GET`	`/acl/replication`	`application/json`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`consistent`	`none`	`none`

» Parameters

dc (string: "") - Specifies the datacenter to query. This will default to the datacenter of the agent being queried. This is specified as part of the URL as a query parameter.

» Sample Request

$ curl \
    --request GET \
    http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/replication

» Sample Response

{
  "Enabled": true,
  "Running": true,
  "SourceDatacenter": "dc1",
  "ReplicationType" : "tokens",
  "ReplicatedIndex": 1976,
  "ReplicatedTokenIndex": 2018,
  "LastSuccess": "2018-11-03T06:28:58Z",
  "LastError": "2016-11-03T06:28:28Z"
}

Enabled - Reports whether ACL replication is enabled for the datacenter.
Running - Reports whether the ACL replication process is running. The process may take approximately 60 seconds to begin running after a leader election occurs.
SourceDatacenter - The authoritative ACL datacenter that ACLs are being replicated from and will match the primary_datacenter configuration.
ReplicationType - The type of replication that is currently in use.
- legacy - ACL replication is in legacy mode and is replicating legacy ACL tokens.
- policies - ACL replication is only replicating policies as token replication is disabled.
- tokens - ACL replication is replicating both policies and tokens.
ReplicatedIndex - The last index that was successfully replicated. Which data the replicated index refers to depends on the replication type. For legacy replication this can be compared with the value of the X-Consul-Index header returned by the /v1/acl/list endpoint to determine if the replication process has gotten all available ACLs. When in either tokens or policies mode, this index can be compared with the value of the X-Consul-Index header returned by the /v1/acl/polcies endpoint to determine if the policy replication process has gotten all available ACL policies. Note that ACL replication is rate limited so the indexes may lag behind the primary datacenter.
ReplicatedTokenIndex - The last token index that was successfully replicated. This index can be compared with the value of the X-Consul-Index header returned by the /v1/acl/tokens endpoint to determine if the replication process has gotten all available ACL tokens. Note that ACL replication is rate limited so the indexes may lag behind the primary datacenter.
LastSuccess - The UTC time of the last successful sync operation. Since ACL replication is done with a blocking query, this may not update for up to 5 minutes if there have been no ACL changes to replicate. A zero value of "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" will be present if no sync has been successful.
LastError - The UTC time of the last error encountered during a sync operation. If this time is later than LastSuccess, you can assume the replication process is not in a good state. A zero value of "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z" will be present if no sync has resulted in an error.

» Translate Rules

Deprecated - This endpoint was introduced in Consul 1.4.0 for migration from the previous ACL system. It will be removed in a future major Consul version when support for legacy ACLs is removed.

This endpoint translates the legacy rule syntax into the latest syntax. It is intended to be used by operators managing Consul's ACLs and performing legacy token to new policy migrations.

Method	Path	Produces
`POST`	`/acl/rules/translate`	`text/plain`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`none`	`none`	`acl:read`

» Sample Payload

agent "" {
   policy = "read"
}

» Sample Request

$ curl -X POST -d @rules.hcl http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/rules/translate

» Sample Response

agent_prefix "" {
   policy = "read"
}

» Translate a Legacy Token's Rules

Deprecated - This endpoint was introduced in Consul 1.4.0 for migration from the previous ACL system.. It will be removed in a future major Consul version when support for legacy ACLs is removed.

This endpoint translates the legacy rules embedded within a legacy ACL into the latest syntax. It is intended to be used by operators managing Consul's ACLs and performing legacy token to new policy migrations. Note that this API requires the auto-generated Accessor ID of the legacy token. This ID can be retrieved using the /v1/acl/token/self endpoint.

Method	Path	Produces
`GET`	`/acl/rules/translate/:accessor_id`	`text/plain`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`none`	`none`	`acl:read`

» Sample Request

$ curl -X GET http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/rules/translate/4f48f7e6-9359-4890-8e67-6144a962b0a5

» Sample Response

agent_prefix "" {
   policy = "read"
}

This endpoint was added in Consul 1.5.0 and is used to exchange an auth method bearer token for a newly-created Consul ACL token.

Method	Path	Produces
`POST`	`/acl/login`	`application/json`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`none`	`none`	`none`

Note - To use the login process to create tokens in any connected secondary datacenter, ACL replication must be enabled. Login requires the ability to create local tokens which is restricted to the primary datacenter and any secondary datacenters with ACL token replication enabled.

» Parameters

AuthMethod (string: <required>) - The name of the auth method to use for login.
BearerToken (string: <required>) - The bearer token to present to the auth method during login for authentication purposes. For the Kubernetes auth method this is a Service Account Token (JWT).
Meta (map<string|string>: nil) - Specifies arbitrary KV metadata linked to the token. Can be useful to track origins.

» Sample Payload

{
    "AuthMethod": "minikube",
    "BearerToken": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IiJ9..."
}

» Sample Request

$ curl \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/login

» Sample Response

{
    "AccessorID": "926e2bd2-b344-d91b-0c83-ae89f372cd9b",
    "SecretID": "b78d37c7-0ca7-5f4d-99ee-6d9975ce4586",
    "Description": "token created via login",
    "Roles": [
        {
            "ID": "3356c67c-5535-403a-ad79-c1d5f9df8fc7",
            "Name": "demo"
        }
    ],
    "ServiceIdentities": [
        {
            "ServiceName": "example"
        }
    ],
    "Local": true,
    "AuthMethod": "minikube",
    "CreateTime": "2019-04-29T10:08:08.404370762-05:00",
    "Hash": "nLimyD+7l6miiHEBmN/tvCelAmE/SbIXxcnTzG3pbGY=",
    "CreateIndex": 36,
    "ModifyIndex": 36
}

» Logout from Auth Method

This endpoint was added in Consul 1.5.0 and is used to destroy a token created via the login endpoint. The token deleted is specified with the X-Consul-Token header or the token query parameter.

Method	Path	Produces
`POST`	`/acl/logout`	`application/json`

The table below shows this endpoint's support for blocking queries, consistency modes, agent caching, and required ACLs.

Blocking Queries	Consistency Modes	Agent Caching	ACL Required
`NO`	`none`	`none`	`none`

Note - This endpoint requires no specific privileges as it is just deleting a token for which you already must possess its secret.

» Sample Request

$ curl \
    -H "X-Consul-Token: b78d37c7-0ca7-5f4d-99ee-6d9975ce4586" \
    --request POST \
    http://127.0.0.1:8500/v1/acl/logout

» ACL HTTP API

» Bootstrap ACLs

» Sample Request

» Sample Response

» Check ACL Replication

» Parameters

» Sample Request

» Sample Response

» Translate Rules

» Sample Payload

» Sample Request

» Sample Response

» Translate a Legacy Token's Rules

» Sample Request

» Sample Response

» Login to Auth Method

» Parameters

» Sample Payload

» Sample Request

» Sample Response

» Logout from Auth Method

» Sample Request