Authenticate to the Buildkite REST API using a personal API access token, understand the base URL and slug-based path structure, and know the current per-organization and per-user rate limits.
domain: buildkite.com/docs · 7 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
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Documented steps
All REST API access is over HTTPS at the `api.buildkite.com` domain (API version v2). A sanity check `curl https://api.buildkite.com` returns `{"message":"🛠","timestamp":...}`. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api
Create a token at https://buildkite.com/user/api-access-tokens (Personal Settings > API Access Tokens > New API Access Token). Pick an **Organization Access** (the org the token can operate within), a **Token Expiry** (defaults to 7 days if unset), and select granular **REST API Scopes** (READ/WRITE/DELETE per feature) and/or **Enable GraphQL API access**. Copy the token value immediately — it is shown only once. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/managing-api-tokens
Common REST scopes: `read_builds`/`write_builds` (builds and job retry/cancel/unblock actions), `read_build_logs`/`write_build_logs` (job logs), `read_pipelines`/`write_pipelines`, `read_job_env`, `read_agents`/`write_agents`, `read_accounts` (needed for the rate-limit endpoint). Choose the narrowest scopes needed. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/managing-api-tokens#token-scopes
Authenticate every request with `Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN` — Basic auth is not supported. Example: `curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -X GET "https://api.buildkite.com/v2/user"`. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api#authentication
Org and pipeline slugs appear directly in the path, e.g. `/v2/organizations/{org.slug}/pipelines/{pipeline.slug}/builds/{number}`; most endpoints are scoped under `/v2/organizations/{org.slug}/...`. A handful of job endpoints also support an org-scoped shortcut, e.g. `/v2/organizations/{org.slug}/jobs/{job.id}/retry`. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api
Two independent rate limits apply to every request: an organization-level limit (default 200 requests/minute per org, 60-second window) and a per-user limit (default 50 requests/minute per token owner). Both are enforced concurrently; exceeding either returns `429`. See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api/rate-limits
Every response carries both header sets: `RateLimit-Scope`, `RateLimit-Remaining`, `RateLimit-Limit`, `RateLimit-Reset` (org-level) and `RateLimit-User-Scope`, `RateLimit-User-Remaining`, `RateLimit-User-Limit`, `RateLimit-User-Reset` (per-user). You can also query current usage directly: `curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" https://api.buildkite.com/v2/organizations/{org.slug}/rate_limit` (requires `read_accounts` scope). See https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api/rate-limits and https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api/organizations/rate-limits
Known gotchas
A token created without an explicit expiry defaults to expiring in 7 days, not indefinitely — set an explicit Token Expiry if you need it to last longer (Public Key credential tokens don't expire).
A token only has access to the single organization selected at creation time (or added later); calls against other orgs will fail even with correct scopes.
Exceeding EITHER the org-level or per-user limit returns 429 — check both `RateLimit-Remaining` and `RateLimit-User-Remaining`, since the org limit can look fine while your own user quota is exhausted (or vice versa). Wait for the number of seconds in `RateLimit-Reset`/`RateLimit-User-Reset` before retrying.
IP allowlisting and automatic revocation of inactive tokens are Enterprise-plan-only features; default org rate limits (200/min) can also vary by plan — check https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/limits for your plan's actual values.
You cannot view a token's value again after creation — only its scopes/description can be edited later, or it can be revoked.
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