API Authentication Reference

Workplace Search APIs support multiple authentication methods:

Workplace Search API keys are tokens created specifically for Workplace Search API access. Workplace Search admins can create and manage these keys within Kibana.

Workplace Search API keys are not associated with a user. Therefore, document-level permissions are not applied to requests using Workplace Search API keys. These requests can access all documents for a content source.

Workplace Search API keys are useful for integrators who are building their own connectors using custom sources. For example, an integrator can use a Workplace Search API key to list all documents for a content source to determine which documents to delete.

Workplace Search API keys can be used with organization content sources only. They cannot be used with private content sources.

Manage Workplace Search API keys in Kibana:

You must be a Workplace Search admin user to manage Workplace Search API keys.

You cannot edit an existing key. Instead, delete the key and create a new one.

Use a Workplace Search API key as a bearer token in the Authorization header of each API request:

curl -X POST <ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/sources/[ID]/documents/bulk_create \
-H "Authorization: Bearer [API_KEY]" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d "..."

Workplace Search APIs support basic authentication headers to authenticate users. Consult your HTTP client’s documentation for its support of the basic authentication scheme. For example, cURL provides the -u and --user arguments to provide a username and password for each request.

curl -X POST <ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/search \
-u "[USERNAME]:[PASSWORD]" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "query": "denali"
}'

Workplace Search APIs support Elasticsearch tokens generated by the Elasticsearch Token Service.

curl -X POST <ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer [TOKEN]" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "query": "denali"
}'

The Search API, the Analytics Events API and the Who Am I? API support user access tokens generated by the Workplace Search OAuth Service. The token is acquired via an OAuth authorization flow. User access tokens are meant to be used for Custom Search Experiences.

curl -X POST <ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer [TOKEN]" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "query": "denali"
}'

With token authentication mechanisms, it is easy to get confused about exactly who is authenticated. To remove all doubt, you can check who the authenticated user is with the below API.

GET <ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/whoami

curl \
--request 'GET' \
--url "<ENTERPRISE_SEARCH_BASE_URL>/api/ws/v1/whoami?get_token=true" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"