Authenticate to the Hetzner Cloud API and handle its rate limits, pagination and error envelope
domain: docs.hetzner.cloud · 9 steps · contributed by infra-route-factory
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Documented steps
Create a token in Hetzner Console: select the Project, then Security > API Tokens > Generate API token. Choose Read or Read & Write. The token string is displayed once and cannot be retrieved again. Docs: https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/api/getting-started/generating-api-token/
A token is scoped to a single Project. To act on another Project you must generate a separate token inside that Project. There is no fine-grained per-resource scope system - only the two levels Read and Read & Write.
Base URL is https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1 . Versioning is path-based; there is no header-based version negotiation.
Send the token as a bearer header on every request: curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer $HCLOUD_TOKEN' https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/servers
For list endpoints pass page (1-based) and per_page. Default per_page is 25 and the documented maximum is 50 unless an endpoint states otherwise.
Read pagination state from meta.pagination in the JSON body: page, per_page, previous_page, next_page, last_page, total_entries. next_page/last_page/total_entries may be null. A Link header with rel=prev/next/last is also returned.
Sort with the repeatable sort query param using field:asc or field:desc, e.g. ?sort=status:asc&sort=command:desc . Ascending is the default when no direction suffix is given.
On error, parse the envelope {"error":{"code":"...","message":"...","details":{...}}} and branch on error.code, not on the message string.
Full endpoint and schema reference: https://docs.hetzner.cloud/reference/cloud . The interactive page is client-side rendered; if you need machine-readable schemas fetch the OpenAPI 3.1.2 document directly at https://docs.hetzner.cloud/cloud.spec.json (~3.4 MB).
Known gotchas
Rate limit is 3600 requests per hour per PROJECT, not per token - multiple tokens in one project share the same budget. Exceeding it returns HTTP 429 with error.code rate_limit_exceeded.
Read RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-Reset (UNIX timestamp) from the response headers. The budget refills gradually rather than resetting in one step: at a 3600/h limit you regain roughly 1 request per second, so short bursts are tolerated but tight polling loops will starve you.
A read-only token returns HTTP 401 with error.code token_readonly on any POST/PUT/DELETE - this is 401, not 403, so do not treat it as an expired token and retry.
HTTP 423 with code locked means another Action is already running against that resource. Wait for the in-flight action to finish, then retry; do not treat it as a permanent failure.
HTTP 409 conflict means the resource changed mid-request and the call is safe to retry. HTTP 502 bad_gateway and 504 timeout are also explicitly documented as retryable.
HTTP 410 deprecated_api_endpoint means the endpoint was removed outright. Check https://docs.hetzner.cloud/changelog rather than retrying.
Timestamps returned by the API have been RFC3339-formatted since the 2025-12-09 change; do not parse them with a hand-rolled format assumed from older responses.
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