Access Token

Overview

If you want to automate tasks with the Argo Server API or CLI, you will need an access token.

Prerequisites

Firstly, create a role with minimal permissions. This example role for jenkins has only permission to list and update workflows in the argo namespace:

kubectl create role jenkins --verb=list,update --resource=workflows.argoproj.io -n argo

Create a service account for your service in the same namespace:

kubectl create sa jenkins -n argo

Tip for Token Creation

Create a unique service account for each client:

• (a) you'll be able to correctly secure your workflows
• (b) revoke the token without impacting other clients.

Bind the service account to the role:

kubectl create rolebinding jenkins --role=jenkins --serviceaccount=argo:jenkins -n argo

Token Creation

You now need to create a secret to hold your token:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: jenkins.service-account-token
  namespace: argo
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/service-account.name: jenkins
type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
EOF

Wait a few seconds for Kubernetes to populate the token:

ARGO_TOKEN="Bearer $(kubectl get secret jenkins.service-account-token -n argo -o=jsonpath='{.data.token}' | base64 --decode)"
echo $ARGO_TOKEN
Bearer ZXlKaGJHY2lPaUpTVXpJMU5pSXNJbXRwWkNJNkltS...

Token Usage & Test

To use that token with the CLI you need to set ARGO_SERVER (see argo --help).

Use that token in your API requests, e.g. to list workflows in the argo namespace:

curl https://localhost:2746/api/v1/workflows/argo -H "Authorization: $ARGO_TOKEN"
# 200 OK

You should check you cannot do things you're not allowed:

curl https://localhost:2746/api/v1/workflow-templates/argo -H "Authorization: $ARGO_TOKEN"
# 403 error

Token Usage - Docker

Set additional params to initialize Argo settings

ARGO_SERVER="${{HOST}}:443"
KUBECONFIG=/dev/null
ARGO_NAMESPACE=argo

Start container with settings above

Example for listing templates in a namespace:

docker run --rm -it \
  -e ARGO_SERVER=$ARGO_SERVER \
  -e ARGO_TOKEN=$ARGO_TOKEN \
  -e ARGO_HTTP=false \
  -e ARGO_HTTP1=true \
  -e KUBECONFIG=/dev/null \
  -e ARGO_NAMESPACE=$ARGO_NAMESPACE \
  quay.io/argoproj/argocli:latest template list -v -e -k

Token Revocation

If a token is compromised, delete the secret:

kubectl delete secret jenkins.service-account-token -n argo

A new token can be created by re-creating the secret as described in Token Creation.