Configure Airflow 2.x REST API authentication and use it to programmatically manage DAG pausing, unpausing, and triggering from an external system
domain: airflow.apache.org · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Enable the REST API in airflow.cfg by setting auth_backends = airflow.api.auth.backend.basic_auth or configure session-based auth for production deployments
Create an API user with appropriate RBAC roles (Op or Admin) via the Airflow UI Admin > Users or the airflow users create CLI command
Unpause a DAG by sending PATCH /api/v1/dags/{dag_id} with body {"is_paused": false} and Basic Auth or Bearer token credentials
Trigger a DAG run by sending POST /api/v1/dags/{dag_id}/dagRuns with a JSON body containing conf (runtime parameters) and optional logical_date
Poll the run status with GET /api/v1/dags/{dag_id}/dagRuns/{dag_run_id} and check the state field (queued, running, success, failed) until the run completes
List task instance statuses for a run with GET /api/v1/dags/{dag_id}/dagRuns/{dag_run_id}/taskInstances to identify which specific tasks failed
Known gotchas
The Airflow REST API requires the webserver to be running and reachable; it does not interact with the scheduler directly — triggering a run via the API enqueues it and the scheduler picks it up asynchronously
Basic auth credentials are sent in plaintext unless TLS is configured on the webserver; always use HTTPS in production or switch to a more secure auth backend
The logical_date field in a triggered DAG run must be unique per DAG; triggering the same DAG with the same logical_date twice will fail with a duplicate run error — use a unique timestamp or omit the field to let Airflow assign one
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