Create and Control API Tokens for Users and Service Accounts
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API tokens grant programmatic access to the Kestra API for users and service accounts.
Where you can use API tokens
Pass a token as a Bearer header to authenticate any Kestra API call — from a CI/CD pipeline, a custom application, or any of the following:
How to create a user API token
Two ways to reach the token creation form:
- Click your user avatar at the bottom-left and select Create API Token.
- Go to Settings → API Tokens and click + Create API Token.
Fill in a Name, optional Description, and Max age (leave blank for a non-expiring token). Enable Extended to automatically reset the expiry each time the token is used. Click Generate, then copy the token immediately — it is shown only once.
How to create a service account API token
Go to IAM → Service Accounts, open the service account, click the API Tokens tab, and click Create. The form fields and expiry options are the same as for user tokens.
How to use an API token in an API request
To authenticate your custom API calls, pass a Bearer token to the request’s Authorization header. The following example triggers a flow execution via the Kestra API:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/executions/dev/hello-world \-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"Was this page helpful?