Authentication

Each request to Celonis APIs must be authenticated with a registered Celonis Identity. There are multiple ways of authenticating as detailed below.

About authentication options

Static Keys

While it is possible to use API keys and Application keys with Celonis, it's important to note that they are not the industry standard and are therefore not recommended. Both keys have an unlimited lifetime and cannot be “rotated”. This means that users need to delete and recreate them to achieve the equivalent of key rotation, which can be a cumbersome process.

One issue (particularly relevant for API Keys) is that they give any application that uses them complete access to almost all the Celonis APIs (public or private). There is no way to restrict their access to only certain resources.

OAuth 2.0 as the Recommended Solution

OAuth 2.0 is a well-established industry standard that makes it easier to integrate customer-managed applications with Celonis. OAuth uses scopes to manage access to resources, which means that the OAuth clients can only access APIs allowed by the scopes they are configured to use.

For example, we can have the scope studio that gives access to Studio or the scope audit.log:read that gives read-only access to audit logs. For an OAuth client to be able to access a certain resource (API), the client must have the OAuth scope and the Celonis permission to do so. This follows the security principle of least privilege so that an OAuth client gets only the required privilege to perform a certain task and not more.

Using a User API key

You can find out how to create a user API key by following our User API Keys guide.

The Celonis API uses Bearer Token Authentication for verifying consumer access. The credentials must be sent in an Authorization header in the HTTP request. Credentials sent in the URL or body of the request will be ignored.

To authenticate using Bearer Token Authentication:

  1. Create the token in the Celonis Platform:
    MDg5MGVkNDktNjMwZC00ODdiLTkyNGItMjNmMzMxNjRmM2IwOkhNUVRMUis4SGh6NHhBY21Vck9GaWdkem5rYzBrb3p0N056WUM0bGlqczMM
  2. Include the string in the HTTP Authorization header formatted like this:
    Authorization: Bearer MDg5MGVkNDktNjMwZC00ODdiLTkyNGItMjNmMzMxNjRmM2IwOkhNUVRMUis4SGh6NHhBY21Vck9GaWdkem5rYzBrb3p0N056WUM0bGlqczMM

Using an Application API key

You can find out how to create an AppKey by following our Application API Keys guide.

To authenticate using AppKey Authentication:

  1. Create the AppKey in the Celonis Platform:
    MzgyZDEzYjItNjI1MS00NTIwLTk1YTItY2ZjYzMzZTllOTNmOkE3a1dvYnpYQ0c3aUtUdTNRNC9UNzFLUXZmY0E2ZjVXUUROajFoN1R5UzIr
  2. Include the string in the HTTP Authorization header formatted like this:
    Authorization: AppKey MzgyZDEzYjItNjI1MS00NTIwLTk1YTItY2ZjYzMzZTllOTNmOkE3a1dvYnpYQ0c3aUtUdTNRNC9UNzFLUXZmY0E2ZjVXUUROajFoN1R5UzIr

IMPORTANT: For production solutions, we strongly recommend using Application keys instead of User API keys. User API keys should be used for testing purposes only.

Using an OAuth 2.0 token

To generate tokes using OAuth 2.0, it is necessary to follow the configuration steps described below.

How to Register OAuth client in Celonis Platform

OAuth can be used as an authentication method for the Celonis Platform, which offers a more secure and flexible way of granting permissions to clients (applications) compared to API keys.

OAuth client Authentication Methods

Client secret basic: With this method, the client sends the $client_id and $client_secret using the Authorization header, in the following format:

  • Authorization: Basic $encoded_credentials .

Here the value of $encoded_credentials corresponds to the base64 encoding of OAuth client’s $client_id:$client_secret.

Client secret post: The client authenticates itself by providing the $client_id and $client_secret in the HTTP request body as a form parameter. To ask for multiples scopes, each scope should be separated by space.

Registering an OAuth client in Celonis Platform

  1. In the Celonis Platform instance, go to Admin & Settings . admin and setting
  2. Click Applications . Application
  3. Then in the upper-right corner, click Add New Application and select "OAuth Client". +Add new application

New OAuth Client

  1. Enter a meaningful name for your client.
  2. The OAuth grant type supported is “Client Credentials”. Select one of the following authentication methods: Client secret basic or Client secret post .
  3. Click Define scopes - Scopes do not grant any additional permissions beyond what the client has. They specify the access-level that the client needs. Select what levels within Celonis Platform the clients will have access to based on granted permissions. Every scope has a name and a description, describing what can be accessed with the scope based on the permissions granted to the client.
  4. Click Create .

As scopes only allow access to the APIs, the created OAuth client should now be assigned permissions to resources behind those APIs.

After creating a client in the Celonis Platform, developers receive client credentials: client ID and client secret. The client secret must be copied as it cannot be accessed again in the future.

OAuth Endpoints

The token endpoint is available at https://< team-url >/oauth2/token.

OAuth token generation request

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curl --request POST \
  --url https://<team>.<cluster>.celonis.cloud/oauth2/token \
  --header 'content-type: multipart/form-data' \
  --form client_id=<client id> \
  --form client_secret=<client secret> \
  --form grant_type=client_credentials \
  --form scope=<scope1 scope2 scopeN>

OAuth token renewal request

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curl --request POST \
  --url https://<team>.<cluster>.celonis.cloud/oauth2/token \
  --header 'content-type: multipart/form-data' \
  --form client_id=<client id> \
  --form client_secret=<client secret> \
  --form refresh_token=<previous access token> \
  --form grant_type=refresh_token \
  --form scope=<scope1 scope2 scopeN>

OAuth token response

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{
	"access_token": "eyJraWQiOiJkZXZlbG9wLWVzMzg0IiwiYWxnIjoiRVMzODQifQ.eyJhdWQiOlsiYjllMzgwZDYtMmUxZS00MmQ5LWI3YjUtZTJkZDI5MGYxZTU5IiwiYXBpbmF1dHMuZGV2ZWxvcC5jZWxvbmlzLmNsb3VkIl0sIm5iZiI6MTcxMjEzNDU4NywiYXpwIjoiYjllMzgwZDYtMmUxZS00MmQ5LWI3YjUtZTJkZDI5MGYxZTU5Iiwic2NvcGUiOlsib3BlbmlkIl0sImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXBpbmF1dHMuZGV2ZWxvcC5jZWxvbmlzLmNsb3VkIiwiZXhwIjoxNzEyMTM1NDg3LCJpYXQiOjE3MTIxMzQ1ODcsImp0aSI6IjI2ZjlhNTU3LWQwMTEtNDcyNy05MTNhLWU3NmU3MDIzMTkyMyJ9.XIBj89ymumPaDL_InAsuWiL_6e5GeMpDGgPz3cZNWF3rNzNTc4GRAXMrtBjU9Gg6SWpyqPK0tTaTsrf88fmc0MboYXvKH0CxtpqWlDp0h_QSRMb1ZsCD226kv83xbh86",
	"scope": "scope1 scope2 scopeN",
	"token_type": "Bearer",
	"expires_in": 899
}

Regenerating OAuth client secrets

For security reasons, you may want to regenerate the client secret. For this, navigate to Admin & Setting > Applications and find the OAuth client. Click on the three dots three dots menu on the right and choose Regenerate Secret. After getting the new secret, make sure to update it in any integration in which this client is used.

Managing OAuth Client Consent

During OAuth authorization flows, users can give consent to OAuth clients to access resources on their behalf. To view which OAuth clients have been granted consent, navigate to Edit Profile and then to the OAuth Client Management section. There, you can view which applications (OAuth clients) have been granted consent and you can revoke such a consent by clicking on Edit and then Revoke Consent for the corresponding client.

How to use OAuth token

The Celonis API uses Bearer Token Authentication for verifying consumer access. The credentials must be sent in an Authorization header in the HTTP request. Credentials sent in the URL or body of the request will be ignored.

To authenticate using Bearer Token Authentication:

  1. Call the token endpoint ( https://< team-url >/oauth2/token ) to issue a new or renew an existing token.
  2. Include the access token in the HTTP Authorization header formatted like this:
    Authorization: Bearer eyJraWQiOiJkZXZlbG9wLWVzMzg0IiwiYWxnIjoiRVMzODQifQ.eyJhdWQiOlsiYjllMzgwZDYtMmUxZS00MmQ5LWI3YjUtZTJkZDI5MGYxZTU5IiwiYXBpbmF1dHMuZGV2ZWxvcC5jZWxvbmlzLmNsb3VkIl0sIm5iZiI6MTcxMjEzNDU4NywiYXpwIjoiYjllMzgwZDYtMmUxZS00MmQ5LWI3YjUtZTJkZDI5MGYxZTU5Iiwic2NvcGUiOlsib3BlbmlkIl0sImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXBpbmF1dHMuZGV2ZWxvcC5jZWxvbmlzLmNsb3VkIiwiZXhwIjoxNzEyMTM1NDg3LCJpYXQiOjE3MTIxMzQ1ODcsImp0aSI6IjI2ZjlhNTU3LWQwMTEtNDcyNy05MTNhLWU3NmU3MDIzMTkyMyJ9.XIBj89ymumPaDL     InAsuWiL 6e5GeMpDGgPz3cZNWF3rNzNTc4GRAXMrtBjU9Gg6SWpyqPK0tTaTsrf88fmc0MboYXvKH0CxtpqWlDp0h QSRMb1ZsCD226kv83xbh86

Video

Authorization

You must set the right permissions and ensure the User API Key or the Application API Key leveraged for authorization purposes has access to the Celonis resources you would like to access through the APIs.