API access

Introduction

OpenStack provides REST APIs for programmatic interaction with the various services (compute, object storage, etc.). These APIs are used by automation tools such as HashiCorp Terraform and the OpenStack CLI utility.

For advanced programmatic usage, there exist freely available SDKs and software libraries for several languages which are maintained by the OpenStack project or community members.

This guides describes the initial steps required for manual usage of the OpenStack REST APIs.

Authentication

Usage of an application credential for API authentication is recommend due to their security and operational benefits.

Listing endpoints

API endpoints for the OpenStack services can be listed by navigating to “Project” → “API Access” in the Horizon web console or by issuing the following command:

$ openstack catalog list

Endpoints marked as “public” in the command output are intended for customer usage.

Reference documentation

For detailed usage of the of the APIs, see the official OpenStack API reference documentation (version “Train”).