Skip to main content

API tokens

API tokens provide long-lived, backwards-compatible authentication for programmatic access to Atlan APIs. By default, a token has admin-level API privileges (excluding connection admin) and can call administrative and governance endpoints. Asset access is separate and is granted via personas assigned to the token.

Prerequisites​

  • Admin access to create tokens.

  • Personas planned for the token if it must read or modify specific connections/assets.

    • Without personas, a token can only access connections (and their assets) that the token itself created. With personas, the token can create/read/update/delete/search glossaries and other assets permitted by those personas.

  • Tenant base URL (for example, https://<your-tenant>.atlan.com) to construct API requests.

Create API token​

  1. Open your tenant, and from the left menu click Admin.

  2. Under Workspace, click API access.

  3. In the upper-right, click Generate new and select Generate API token.

  4. In the modal, enter a Name. For example:

    dbt-cloud-sync

  5. Enter a Description to note the intended use.

    Service account for dbt Cloud → Atlan sync

  6. Set an Expiry if you want the token to auto invalidate after a period.

  7. Select Personas to grant access to specific connections and assets.

  8. Click Save. This generates the API token.

One-time visibility

The full token is displayed only once after creation. If you lose it, delete the token and create a new one.

  1. Copy or download the token now and store it securely (secret manager, vault, or environment variable).

Use API token​

Authenticate every HTTP request with the token as a bearer credential.

  1. Set the API origin to your tenant base URL and append the endpoint path.

    https://<your-tenant>.atlan.com

  2. Add the HTTP header to every request:

    Authorization: Bearer {token}

    For example, if the token value is eyJhbGciOi..., set the header as:

    Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOi...

See also​