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## About the changes Follow up on https://github.com/Unleash/unleash/pull/10430 this PR adapts documentation. --------- Co-authored-by: Melinda Fekete <melinda.fekete@getunleash.io>
66 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: API overview
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description: "An overview of the three main Unleash APIs: Client API, Frontend API, and Admin API."
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displayed_sidebar: documentation
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---
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import SearchPriority from '@site/src/components/SearchPriority';
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<SearchPriority level="high" />
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## Unleash APIs
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Unleash provides a set of APIs to give you full programmatic control over your feature flags and to connect your applications and services to Unleash. There are three main APIs, each designed for a specific purpose.
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| API | Used by | Primary use case |
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|---------------|---------|---|
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| **Client API** | Backend SDKs | Fetch feature flag configurations. |
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| **Frontend API** | Frontend SDKs | Fetch enabled feature flags for a specific [Unleash Context](/reference/unleash-context). |
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| **Admin API** | [Admin UI](/understanding-unleash/unleash-overview#the-unleash-admin-ui), internal tooling, and third-party [integrations](/reference/integrations) | Access and manage all resources within Unleash, such as context, environments, events, metrics, and users. |
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## API authentication and tokens
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All Unleash APIs require authentication using an [API token](/reference/api-tokens-and-client-keys). The type of token you use depends on the API you are accessing and your specific use case.
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### Token types
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Unleash supports four types of API tokens:
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- **Backend tokens**: Used to connect backend SDKs, Unleash Edge, and the Unleash Proxy to the Client API. Can be scoped to a specific project and environment.
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- **Frontend tokens**: Used to connect frontend SDKs to the Frontend API or Unleash Edge. These tokens are designed to be publicly accessible and have limited permissions. Can be scoped to a specific project and environment.
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- **Personal access tokens**: Tied to a specific user account. They are useful for testing, debugging, or providing temporary access to tools and scripts that need to interact with the Admin API.
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- **Service account tokens**: The recommended method for providing API access to integrations, automation tools, and other non-human users. Service accounts provide a more secure and manageable way to grant Admin API access.
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For an end-to-end Unleash integration, you might need to use multiple token types. For example, when connecting a frontend SDK to Unleash using Unleash Edge, you'll need the following tokens:
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- A frontend token for the frontend SDK to securely communicate with Unleash Edge.
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- A backend token for Unleash Edge to communicate with the main Unleash server.
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Ensure that the backend token has access to the same project and environment (or a broader scope) as the frontend token.
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### Create an API token
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Depending on your permissions, you can create API tokens in the Unleash Admin UI in four ways:
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- **Admin settings > Access control > API access**: for backend or frontend tokens; requires the Admin root role, or a custom root role with API token permissions.
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- **Admin settings > Service accounts > New service account**: for creating a service account and assigning a token.
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- **Settings > API access** [inside a project]: for project-specific client or frontend tokens; permitted for project Members or users with a corresponding root role.
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- **Profile > View profile settings > Personal API tokens**: for personal access tokens.
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## API specification
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For a comprehensive and interactive reference of all available endpoints, Unleash provides an OpenAPI specification. This is useful for exploring the APIs, generating client libraries, and for testing.
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:::note Availability
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**Unleash version**: `5.2+` enabled by default.
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**Unleash version**: `4.13+` can be enabled using the `ENABLE_OAS` [environment variable](using-unleash/deploy/configuring-unleash).
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:::
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You can access the specification from your Unleash instance at the following paths:
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- **Interactive Swagger UI**: `/docs/openapi/`
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- **Raw JSON specification**: `/docs/openapi.json`
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For detailed guides on each API, please refer to the full reference documentation.
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