API Tokens

API tokens (Bearer tokens) enable you to access Netdata resources programmatically. These tokens authenticate and authorize API requests, allowing you to interact with Netdata services securely from external applications, scripts, or integrations.

important

API tokens never expire but should be managed carefully as they grant access to your Netdata resources.

Token Generation

Location

You can access token management through the Netdata UI:

1. Click your profile picture in the bottom-left corner
2. Select "User Settings"
3. Navigate to the API Tokens section

Available Scopes

You can limit each token to specific scopes that define its access permissions:

Scope	Description	API Access
scope:all	Grants the same permissions as the user who created the token. Use case: Terraform provider integration.	Full access to all API endpoints
scope:agent-ui	Used by Agent for accessing the Cloud UI	Access to UI-related endpoints
scope:grafana-plugin	Used for the Netdata Grafana plugin to access Netdata charts	Access to chart and data endpoints
scope:mcp	Used to connect MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) to Netdata Cloud MCP for AI-assisted monitoring	Access to MCP server endpoints

API Versions

Netdata provides three API versions that you can access with API tokens:

• v1: The original API, focused on single-node operations
• v2: Multi-node API with advanced grouping and aggregation capabilities
• v3: The latest API version that combines v1 and v2 endpoints and may include additional features

Common Endpoints

With appropriate API tokens, you can access endpoints including:

• /api/v2/nodes - Node information
• /api/v2/data - Multi-dimensional data queries
• /api/v2/contexts - Context metadata
• /api/v2/weights - Metric scoring/correlation
• /api/v2/q - Full-text search
• /api/v1/info - Agent information
• /api/v1/charts - Chart information
• /api/v1/data - Single node data queries

info

Currently, Netdata Cloud is not exposing the stable API.

Example Usage

Get the Netdata Cloud space list

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://app.netdata.cloud/api/v2/spaces

Get node information

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://app.netdata.cloud/api/v2/nodes

Query metric data

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://app.netdata.cloud/api/v2/data?contexts=system.cpu&after=-600

Advanced Metric Queries with Aggregation

For more advanced queries with aggregation, use the POST endpoint with a JSON body. This allows you to query metrics with time aggregation (like average values) and control grouping and filtering.

TOKEN="YOUR_API_TOKEN"
SPACE="YOUR_SPACE_ID"
ROOM="YOUR_ROOM_ID"

read -r -d '' PAYLOAD <<'EOF'
{
  "scope": {"contexts": ["system.cpu"]},
  "selectors": {"nodes": ["*"], "contexts": ["*"], "instances": ["*"], "dimensions": ["*"], "labels": ["*"], "alerts": ["*"]},
  "window": {"after": -600, "before": 0, "points": 5},
  "aggregations": {
    "metrics": [{"group_by": ["selected"], "aggregation": "sum"}],
    "time": {"time_group": "average"}
  },
  "format": "json2",
  "options": ["jsonwrap", "minify", "unaligned"],
  "timeout": 30000
}
EOF

curl -s -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://app.netdata.cloud/api/v3/spaces/$SPACE/rooms/$ROOM/data" \
  -d "$PAYLOAD"

Time Aggregation Options

The time_group parameter in aggregations.time controls how data points within each time interval are combined:

Option	Description	Use Case
average	Mean value (default)	Average resource consumption over time
min	Minimum value	Find lowest values in each interval
max	Maximum value	Find spikes or peaks
sum	Sum of values	Total volume transferred (counters)
median	Median value	Robust central tendency
stddev	Standard deviation	Measure of variability
ses	Single exponential smoothing	Trend-aware smoothing
des	Double exponential smoothing	Trend + seasonality smoothing
incremental-sum	Difference between last and first value	Change over interval
percentile	Generic percentile (set value in time_group_options)	e.g., 95th percentile latency
countif	Count values matching condition (set condition in time_group_options)	e.g., count samples above threshold
trimmed-mean	Mean after trimming outliers (set trim % in time_group_options)	Robust average excluding extremes
trimmed-median	Median after trimming outliers (set trim % in time_group_options)	Robust median excluding extremes
extremes	Min and max values	Show value range per interval

important

When using time_group values other than min, max, average, or sum, you MUST specify "tier": 0 in the window object to ensure a non-aggregated storage tier is used. Without it, the query may use a pre-aggregated tier (per-minute or per-hour) where advanced functions like median, stddev, ses, des, percentile, countif, trimmed-mean, trimmed-median, and extremes cannot work correctly.

Get context information

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" https://app.netdata.cloud/api/v2/contexts