Version: 8.6

Overview

Operate API is a REST API and provides searching, getting, and changing Operate data. Requests and responses are in JSON notation. Some objects have additional endpoints. For example, process-definitions has an endpoint to get the process-definition as XML representation. In case of errors, Operate API returns an error object.

note

Work with this API in our Postman collection, and check it out in GitHub.

Context paths

For SaaS: https://${REGION}.operate.camunda.io:443/${CLUSTER_ID}/v1/, and for Self-Managed installations: http://localhost:8080/v1/.

note

Find your region Id and cluster Id under Connection information in your client credentials (revealed when you click on your client under the API tab within your cluster).

For Self-Managed, the host and port depend on your configuration. The context path mentioned here is the default for the Operate component.

API Explorer

See the interactive Operate API Explorer for specifications, example requests and responses, and code samples of interacting with the Operate API.

Swagger UI

A Swagger UI is also available within a running instance of Operate, at https://${base-url}/swagger-ui/index.html.

For SaaS: https://${REGION}.operate.camunda.io/${CLUSTER_ID}/swagger-ui.html, and for Self-Managed installations: http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui.html.

note

Find your region Id and cluster Id under Connection information in your client credentials (revealed when you click on your client under the API tab within your cluster).

Limitation for Operate API v.1

The Swagger UI may display incorrect id and key values for data created on Zeebe partitions >= 4. If you plan to copy and use precise IDs in other queries, consider using another REST API client, such as Postman or the curl command.

This is because Zeebe may create key values greater than JavaScript's Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER (2^53-1) and the Swagger UI may display such values incorrectly.

The Camunda 8 API v.2 returns id and key values as strings, so this limitation does not apply.

Multi-tenancy

note

The multi-tenancy feature is available in Self-Managed setups only.

All Operate endpoints for which tenant assignment is relevant will:

Return tenantId field in response
Provide tenantId search parameter

Review the Operate API Explorer for the exact request and response structure.

Search

Every object has a search /v1/<object>/search endpoint which can be requested by POST and a given query request.

Query

The query request consists of components for filter, size, sort, and pagination.

{
   "filter": { object fields to match },
   "size": <number of items to return>,
   "sort": [ {"field":"<name of field to sort on>", "order": "<ASC|DESC>" ],
   "searchAfter": [ <identifier of item from which next search should start> ]
}

Filter

Specifies which fields should match. Only items that match the given fields will be returned. Review the Operate API Explorer for the available fields on each object.

Filter strings, numbers, and booleans

Fields of type string, number, and boolean need the exact value to match.

note

When filtering process instances, parentProcessInstanceKey can be used instead of parentKey in the request JSON. The response JSON for a process instance will contain the field parentKey, even when parentProcessInstanceKey is used during input filtering.

Examples

Return all items with field processInstanceKey equals 235:

{ "filter": { "processInstanceKey": 235 } }

Return all items with field parentKey equals 123. Note: parentProcessInstanceKey can also be used as an alias for parentKey and filters identically:

{ "filter": { "parentKey": 123 } }

{ "filter": { "parentProcessInstanceKey": 123 } }

A filter that could be used to search for all flow node instances with field processInstanceKey equals 235, state equals ACTIVE and incident equals true:

{
  "filter": { "processInstanceKey": 235, "state": "ACTIVE", "incident": true }
}

Filter dates

Date fields need to be specified in format: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZZ; for example, 2022-03-17T11:50:25.729+0000.

You can use modifier to match date ranges:

Modifier	Description
\|\|/y	Within a year
\|\|/M	Within a month
\|\|/w	Within a week
\|\|/d	Within a day
\|\|/h	Within an hour
\|\|/m	Within a minute
\|\|/s	Within a second

Example

Return all items with field startDate within a minute (||/m) for 2022-03-17 11:50:25.

{
  "filter": {
    "startDate": "2022-03-17T11:50:25.729+0000||/m"
  }
}

Size

Maximum items should be returned and must be a number.

Example

Return maximum 23 items:

{ "size": 23 }

Sort

Specify which field of the object should be sorted and whether ascending (ASC) or descending (DESC).

Example

Sort by name descending:

{ "sort": [{ "field": "name", "order": "DESC" }] }

Pagination

Specify the item where the next search should start. For this, you need the values from previous results. Copy the values from sortValues field from the previous results into the searchAfter value of query. Refer also to results.

Example

Get next 10 results for previous query by copying the value of sortValues of the previous results object. Assuming the sortValues value was ["the-name",12345], put it as value for searchAfter in the next query.

{
  "sort": [{ "field": "name", "order": "DESC" }],
  "searchAfter": ["the-name", 12345]
}

Query components combined

The query components filter, size, sort, and searchAfter can be combined.

Default values are:

Component	Default value	Description
filter	null	Empty (all fields match)
size	10
sort	`[{"field":"key","order":"ASC"}]`	Sorted ascending by key
searchAfter	null	First items will be returned

Example

Get max 50 process instances with processVersion equals 2 sorted ascending by bpmnProcessId:

POST /v1/process-instances/search

{
  "filter": {
    "processVersion": 2
  },
  "size": 50,
  "sort": [
    {
      "field": "bpmnProcessId",
      "order": "ASC"
    }
  ]
}

Results are:

  ...
  {
      "key": 2251799813699162,
      "processVersion": 2,
      "bpmnProcessId": "called-process",
      "startDate": "2022-03-17T11:53:41.581+0000",
      "state": "ACTIVE",
      "processDefinitionKey": 2251799813695996
    }
  ],
  "sortValues": [
    "called-process",
    2251799813699162
  ],
  "total": 654
}

Take the value of sortValues and copy it to searchAfter for the next 50 items:

{
  "filter": {
    "processVersion": 2
  },
  "size": 50,
  "sort": [
    {
      "field": "bpmnProcessId",
      "order": "ASC"
    }
  ],
  "searchAfter": ["called-process", 2251799813699162]
}

Results

The API responds with a Results object. It contains an items array, total amount of found items, and sortValues for pagination.

{
  "items": [ { item 1 } , { item 2 } ... ],
  "total": <number of found items>,
  "sortValues": [<array of values to retrieve next page of results>]
}

Items

An array of objects that matches the query.

Total

The total amount of found objects. This is an exact value until 10,000. If more than this, try to make your query more specific.

Refer also to Elasticsearch max results.

sortValues (Pagination)

Use the value (an array) of this field to get the next page of results in your next query. Copy the value to searchAfter in your next query to get the next page.

Refer also to Elasticsearch search after.

Example

Results for process-instances:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "key": 2251799813699213,
      "processVersion": 2,
      "bpmnProcessId": "called-process",
      "startDate": "2022-03-17T11:53:41.758+0000",
      "state": "ACTIVE",
      "processDefinitionKey": 2251799813695996,
      "parentKey": 4503599627370497,
      "parentFlowNodeInstanceKey": 4503599627370535
    },
    {
      "key": 2251799813699262,
      "processVersion": 2,
      "bpmnProcessId": "called-process",
      "startDate": "2022-03-17T11:53:41.853+0000",
      "state": "ACTIVE",
      "processDefinitionKey": 2251799813695996,
      "parentKey": 4503599627370497,
      "parentFlowNodeInstanceKey": 4503599627370535
    }
  ],
  "sortValues": ["called-process", 2251799813699262],
  "total": 654
}

Get object by key

Every object has a GET /v1/<object>/{key} endpoint where {key} is the identifier of the object. Every object has a key field. One special case is for decision instances, where the identifier is the id field, because the key field is not unique.

Example

Get the data for process instance with key 2251799813699213:

GET /v1/process-instances/2251799813699213

Result:

{
  "key": 2251799813699213,
  "processVersion": 2,
  "bpmnProcessId": "called-process",
  "startDate": "2022-03-17T11:53:41.758+0000",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "processDefinitionKey": 2251799813695996,
  "parentKey": 4503599627370497,
  "parentFlowNodeInstanceKey": 4503599627370535
}

Change objects

Some objects can be changed (for example, deleted). The endpoint is the same as getting the object, but with HTTP DELETE instead of HTTP GET. The response is a ChangeStatus object which describes what happened and how many objects were changed.

Example

Delete the data for process instance (and all dependant data) with key 2251799813699213:

DELETE /v1/process-instances/2251799813699213

Result

{
  "message": "1 process instance and dependant data was deleted",
  "deleted": 1
}

Context paths​

API Explorer​

Swagger UI​

Multi-tenancy​

Search​

Query​

Filter​

Filter strings, numbers, and booleans​

Examples​

Filter dates​

Example​

Size​

Example​

Sort​

Example​

Pagination​

Example​

Query components combined​

Example​

Results​

Items​

Total​

sortValues (Pagination)​

Example​

Get object by key​

Example​

Result:​

Change objects​

Example​

Result​

Context paths

API Explorer

Swagger UI

Multi-tenancy

Search

Query

Filter

Filter strings, numbers, and booleans

Examples

Filter dates

Example

Size

Example

Sort

Example

Pagination

Example

Query components combined

Example

Results

Items

Total

sortValues (Pagination)

Example

Get object by key

Example

Result:

Change objects

Example

Result