certctl/docs/reference/api.md

OpenAPI Specification Guide

Last reviewed: 2026-05-05

certctl ships with a complete OpenAPI 3.1 specification at api/openapi.yaml. The spec documents every operation (re-derive count via grep -cE '^\s+operationId:' api/openapi.yaml), every request/response schema, pagination conventions, authentication requirements, and error formats. It's the single source of truth for the documented REST API.

This guide covers how to use the spec for API exploration, client SDK generation, and integration testing.

Where to Find It

The spec lives at api/openapi.yaml in the repository root. It's versioned alongside the code and updated with every API change.

# View the spec
cat api/openapi.yaml

# Count operations (includes health + ready)
grep -cE '^\s+operationId:' api/openapi.yaml

Viewing with Swagger UI

The fastest way to explore the API interactively is Swagger UI. Run it as a Docker container pointing at the spec:

# From the certctl repo root
docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -e SWAGGER_JSON=/spec/openapi.yaml \
  -v $(pwd)/api:/spec \
  swaggerapi/swagger-ui

Open http://localhost:8080 to see the full API reference with "Try it out" buttons for every endpoint.

Alternatively, use Redoc for a cleaner read-only view:

docker run -p 8080:80 \
  -e SPEC_URL=/spec/openapi.yaml \
  -v $(pwd)/api:/usr/share/nginx/html/spec \
  redocly/redoc

API Structure

The spec organizes endpoints into 16 tags:

Tag	Endpoints	Description
Certificates	12	CRUD, versions, renewal, deployment, revocation, deployments
CRL & OCSP	3	JSON CRL, DER CRL per issuer, OCSP responder
Issuers	5	CA connector management
Targets	5	Deployment target management
Agents	7	Registration, heartbeat, CSR submission, work polling
Jobs	5	Job queue with approve/reject
Policies	5	Policy rules and violations
Profiles	5	Certificate enrollment profiles
Teams	5	Team management
Owners	5	Certificate owners
Agent Groups	5	Dynamic agent grouping
Audit	2	Immutable audit trail
Notifications	3	Notification events
Stats	5	Dashboard statistics
Metrics	1	System metrics
Health	3	Health, readiness, auth info

Authentication

The spec declares a bearerAuth security scheme applied globally. All endpoints under /api/v1/ require a Bearer token by default:

# The default compose stack uses a self-signed cert; pin with --cacert
curl --cacert ./deploy/test/certs/ca.crt \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your-api-key" \
  https://localhost:8443/api/v1/certificates

Three endpoints are exempt from auth (declared with security: [] in the spec): /health, /ready, and /api/v1/auth/info. The auth info endpoint tells clients whether authentication is enabled and what type is required — useful for GUIs that need to show/hide a login screen.

Pagination Convention

All list endpoints follow the same pagination pattern:

Request parameters:

• page (integer, default 1) — page number
• per_page (integer, default 50, max 500) — results per page

Response envelope:

{
  "data": [...],
  "total": 150,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 50
}

Certificates also support cursor-based pagination for large datasets:

• cursor (string) — opaque cursor token from previous response
• page_size (integer) — results per page when using cursor mode

Generating Client SDKs

The OpenAPI spec can generate typed client libraries for any language. Here are examples using common generators:

TypeScript (openapi-typescript-codegen)

npx openapi-typescript-codegen \
  --input api/openapi.yaml \
  --output src/generated/certctl \
  --client axios

Python (openapi-python-client)

pip install openapi-python-client
openapi-python-client generate --path api/openapi.yaml

Go (oapi-codegen)

go install github.com/oapi-codegen/oapi-codegen/v2/cmd/oapi-codegen@latest
oapi-codegen -generate types,client -package certctl api/openapi.yaml > certctl_client.go

Java (OpenAPI Generator)

npx @openapitools/openapi-generator-cli generate \
  -i api/openapi.yaml \
  -g java \
  -o generated/java-client

Validating the Spec

Verify the spec is valid OpenAPI 3.1:

# Using spectral (recommended)
npx @stoplight/spectral-cli lint api/openapi.yaml

# Using swagger-cli
npx @apidevtools/swagger-cli validate api/openapi.yaml

Using with Postman

Import the spec directly into Postman:

1. Open Postman → Import → File → select api/openapi.yaml
2. Postman creates a collection with every documented operation organized by tag
3. Set the baseUrl variable to https://localhost:8443 (HTTPS-only as of v2.2)
4. Add an Authorization: Bearer your-api-key header to the collection
5. Import the demo stack CA bundle (deploy/test/certs/ca.crt) into Postman's Settings → Certificates → CA Certificates, or disable certificate verification for the localhost host (Settings → General → SSL certificate verification)

Key Schemas

The spec defines typed schemas for all domain objects. Key schemas to know:

Schema	Description
ManagedCertificate	Core certificate record with status, expiry, owner, tags, profile
CertificateVersion	Individual cert version with PEM, serial, fingerprint, validity
Agent	Agent with heartbeat, metadata (OS, arch, IP, version), capabilities
Job	Job record with type, status (7 states), certificate/target references
PolicyRule	Policy with type (5 types), config, severity, enabled state
CertificateProfile	Enrollment profile with allowed key types, max TTL, constraints
AuditEvent	Immutable audit record with actor, action, resource, timestamp
RevocationReason	RFC 5280 reason code enum (8 values)
DashboardSummary	Aggregate stats (total certs, expiring, agents, jobs)

Integration Testing

Use the spec to generate contract tests that verify the API matches the spec:

# Using schemathesis for fuzz testing against the spec
pip install schemathesis
# The default compose stack uses a self-signed cert — export a CA bundle or set REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE
export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=$(pwd)/deploy/test/certs/ca.crt
schemathesis run api/openapi.yaml \
  --base-url https://localhost:8443 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer your-api-key"

This sends randomized valid requests to every endpoint and verifies the responses match the declared schemas.

What's Next

• MCP Server Guide — AI-native access to the certctl API
• Quick Start — Get certctl running locally
• Connector Guide — Build custom issuer and target connectors
• Architecture — System design deep dive