API

Using the API

Everything the dashboard does, over the same REST API — from CI, a script, or a control panel.

Everything the dashboard does, it does over the same REST API you can call yourself. This section is about doing it without a browser session — from CI, from a script, from a hosting provider’s control panel.

The API is served by your own instance, under /api on the URL you reach the dashboard at. There is no DockBoard-hosted API in the middle: your keys, your data and your requests never leave your server.

BASH

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCKBOARD_API_KEY" \
  https://panel.example.com/api/applications

Where to start

Authentication: Session tokens versus API keys, minting a key, and what a key can never do.
Scopes: What each scope reaches, wildcards, and the two ceilings a key answers to.
Deploying from CI: A complete workflow that deploys and waits for the result.
Errors: What each status code means, and how to operate keys over time.
Reference: Every endpoint, parameter and request body, generated from the API itself.

The shape of the API

JSON in, JSON out. Send Content-Type: application/json on anything with a body.
Resources are addressed by opaque id — /api/applications/:id, /api/deployments/:id. Ids are stable; slugs are not.
Errors are HTTP status codes with a JSON body carrying statusCode and message. See errors.
Long operations — a deployment, a restore — return immediately with a record you then poll. Nothing blocks for minutes.

An interactive Swagger UI is also served at /api/docs on your own instance. It is off in production unless you set SWAGGER_PUBLIC — the reference here is the public copy.

The other API

Everything above is the API of your instance. Separately, this site exposes a small licensing API used to activate a license and send heartbeats. You rarely call it by hand — DockBoard does it for you — but it is documented for hosting providers automating installs.