fabro/docs/api-reference/overview.mdx

---
title: "API Overview"
description: "Introduction to the Fabro REST API"
---

<Warning>
The Fabro API is **under active development** and may be subject to change. Endpoints, request/response formats, and authentication mechanisms may evolve as the project matures.
</Warning>

The Fabro API is a REST API for managing workflow runs, interactive sessions, and related resources. All requests and responses use JSON.

## Base URL

The API is served by `fabro serve`, which defaults to:

```
http://localhost:3000
```

The base URL is configurable via `server.toml`:

```toml title="server.toml"
[api]
base_url = "https://fabro.example.com"
```

## Authentication

The API supports two authentication strategies, configured in `server.toml`:

```toml title="server.toml"
[api]
authentication_strategies = ["jwt"]
```

### JWT (Bearer Token)

Send an Ed25519-signed JWT in the `Authorization` header:

```
Authorization: Bearer <token>
```

The token must include these claims:

| Claim | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `iss` | Issuer — must be `fabro-web` |
| `iat` | Issued-at timestamp (Unix seconds) |
| `exp` | Expiration timestamp (Unix seconds) |
| `sub` | Subject — a URL identifying the user (e.g. `https://github.com/username`) |

The username is extracted from the last path segment of the `sub` claim and checked against the `allowed_usernames` list in the web auth config.

Set the verification key via the `FABRO_JWT_PUBLIC_KEY` environment variable (PEM format or base64-encoded PEM).

### mTLS (Mutual TLS)

With mTLS, the client authenticates using a TLS client certificate. Configure both the strategy and TLS paths:

```toml title="server.toml"
[api]
authentication_strategies = ["mtls"]

[api.tls]
cert = "~/.fabro/certs/server.crt"
key = "~/.fabro/certs/server.key"
ca = "~/.fabro/certs/ca.crt"
```

The Common Name (CN) from the client certificate identifies the user.

### Multiple Strategies

You can configure both strategies. They are tried in order — the first successful match wins:

```toml title="server.toml"
[api]
authentication_strategies = ["jwt", "mtls"]
```

## Errors

### Error Shape

All error responses share a consistent JSON structure:

```json
{
  "errors": [
    {
      "status": "404",
      "title": "Not Found",
      "detail": "Run abc123 not found."
    }
  ]
}
```

Each entry in the `errors` array contains:

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `status` | `string` | The HTTP status code as a string |
| `title` | `string` | The canonical reason phrase for the status code |
| `detail` | `string` | A human-readable explanation of the error |

### HTTP Status Codes

| Status | Meaning | When It Occurs |
|--------|---------|----------------|
| `400 Bad Request` | The request body or parameters are invalid | Missing required fields, malformed JSON |
| `401 Unauthorized` | Authentication is missing or invalid | No token, expired token, invalid certificate |
| `403 Forbidden` | The authenticated user lacks access | Username not in the allowed list |
| `404 Not Found` | The requested resource does not exist | Unknown run ID, unknown workflow name |
| `409 Conflict` | The resource is in a conflicting state | Answering a question on a run that isn't running yet |
| `410 Gone` | The resource is no longer available | SSE event stream has closed |
| `501 Not Implemented` | The endpoint exists but is not yet implemented | Placeholder routes |
| `502 Bad Gateway` | An upstream dependency failed | Graphviz `dot` not installed or returned an error |

## Pagination

List endpoints that return large collections use offset-based pagination. Pass pagination parameters as query strings:

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `page[limit]` | `integer` | `20` | Maximum number of items to return (clamped to 1–100) |
| `page[offset]` | `integer` | `0` | Number of items to skip |

Paginated responses include a `meta` object alongside the `data` array:

```json
{
  "data": [...],
  "meta": {
    "has_more": true
  }
}
```

When `has_more` is `true`, increment the offset by the limit to fetch the next page.

## Versioning

The Fabro API does not currently use versioning. All endpoints reflect the latest behavior of the running server. Breaking changes will be communicated in the [changelog](/changelog/2026-03-06).

## Discovery

The root endpoint (`GET /`) returns discovery URLs. The health endpoint (`GET /health`) can be used for liveness checks. The OpenAPI spec is available at `GET /openapi.json`.