RabbitMQ Management HTTP API

Introduction

Apart from this help page, all URIs will serve only resources of type application/json, and will require HTTP basic authentication (using the standard RabbitMQ user database). The default user is guest/guest.

Many URIs require the name of a virtual host as part of the path, since names only uniquely identify objects within a virtual host. As the default virtual host is called "/", this will need to be encoded as "%2f".

PUTing a resource creates it. The JSON object you upload must have certain mandatory keys (documented below) and may have optional keys. Other keys are ignored. Missing mandatory keys constitute an error.

Since bindings do not have names or IDs in AMQP we synthesise one based on all its properties. Since predicting this name is hard in the general case, you can also create bindings by POSTing to a factory URI. See the example below.

Many URIs return lists. Such URIs can have the query string parameters sort and sort_reverse added. sort allows you to select a primary field to sort by, and sort_reverse will reverse the sort order if set to true. The sort parameter can contain subfields separated by dots. This allows you to sort by a nested component of the listed items; it does not allow you to sort by more than one field. See the example below.

You can also restrict what information is returned per item with the columns parameter. This is a comma-separated list of subfields separated by dots. See the example below.

Most of the GET queries return many fields per object. See the separate stats documentation.

Examples

A few quick examples for Windows and Unix, using the command line tool curl:

Get a list of vhosts:

:: Windows
C:\> curl -i -u guest:guest http://localhost:15672/api/vhosts

# Unix
$ curl -i -u guest:guest http://localhost:15672/api/vhosts

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/1.10.0 (never breaks eye contact)
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 12:00:02 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 30

[{"name":"/","tracing":false}]

Get a list of channels, fast publishers first, restricting the info items we get back:

:: Windows
C:\> curl -i -u guest:guest "http://localhost:15672/api/channels?sort=message_stats.publish_details.rate&sort_reverse=true&columns=name,message_stats.publish_details.rate,message_stats.deliver_get_details.rate"

# Unix
$ curl -i -u guest:guest 'http://localhost:15672/api/channels?sort=message_stats.publish_details.rate&sort_reverse=true&columns=name,message_stats.publish_details.rate,message_stats.deliver_get_details.rate'

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/1.10.0 (never breaks eye contact)
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 12:01:17 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 219
Cache-Control: no-cache

[{"message_stats":{"publish_details":{"rate" ... (remainder elided)

Create a new vhost:

:: Windows
C:\> curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" ^
      -XPUT http://localhost:15672/api/vhosts/foo

# Unix
$ curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" \
   -XPUT http://localhost:15672/api/vhosts/foo

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/1.10.0 (never breaks eye contact)
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 12:03:00 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 0

Note: you must specify application/json as the mime type.

Note: the name of the object is not needed in the JSON object uploaded, since it is in the URI. As a virtual host has no properties apart from its name, this means you do not need to specify a body at all!

Create a new exchange in the default virtual host:

:: Windows
C:\> curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" ^
       -XPUT -d"{""type"":""direct"",""durable"":true}" ^
       http://localhost:15672/api/exchanges/%2f/my-new-exchange

# Unix
$ curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" \
    -XPUT -d'{"type":"direct","durable":true}' \
    http://localhost:15672/api/exchanges/%2f/my-new-exchange

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/1.10.0 (never breaks eye contact)
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 12:04:00 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 0

Note: we never return a body in response to a PUT or DELETE, unless it fails.

And delete it again:

:: Windows
C:\> curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" ^
       -XDELETE http://localhost:15672/api/exchanges/%2f/my-new-exchange

# Unix
$ curl -i -u guest:guest -H "content-type:application/json" \
    -XDELETE http://localhost:15672/api/exchanges/%2f/my-new-exchange

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/1.10.0 (never breaks eye contact)
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 12:05:30 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 0

Reference

GET

PUT

DELETE

POST

Path

Description

/api/overview

Various random bits of information that describe the whole system.

/api/cluster-name

Name identifying this RabbitMQ cluster.

/api/nodes

A list of nodes in the RabbitMQ cluster.

/api/nodes/name

An individual node in the RabbitMQ cluster. Add "?memory=true" to get memory statistics, and "?binary=true" to get a breakdown of binary memory use (may be expensive if there are many small binaries in the system).

/api/extensions

A list of extensions to the management plugin.

/api/definitions
/api/all-configuration (deprecated)

The server definitions - exchanges, queues, bindings, users, virtual hosts, permissions and parameters. Everything apart from messages. POST to upload an existing set of definitions. Note that:

The definitions are merged. Anything already existing on the server but not in the uploaded definitions is untouched.
Conflicting definitions on immutable objects (exchanges, queues and bindings) will cause an error.
Conflicting definitions on mutable objects will cause the object in the server to be overwritten with the object from the definitions.
In the event of an error you will be left with a part-applied set of definitions.

For convenience you may upload a file from a browser to this URI (i.e. you can use multipart/form-data as well as application/json) in which case the definitions should be uploaded as a form field named "file".

/api/definitions/vhost

The server definitions for a given virtual host - exchanges, queues, bindings and policies. POST to upload an existing set of definitions. Note that:

The definitions are merged. Anything already existing on the server but not in the uploaded definitions is untouched.
Conflicting definitions on immutable objects (exchanges, queues and bindings) will cause an error.
Conflicting definitions on mutable objects will cause the object in the server to be overwritten with the object from the definitions.
In the event of an error you will be left with a part-applied set of definitions.

/api/connections

A list of all open connections.

/api/vhosts/vhost/connections

A list of all open connections in a specific vhost.

/api/connections/name

An individual connection. DELETEing it will close the connection. Optionally set the "X-Reason" header when DELETEing to provide a reason.

/api/connections/name/channels

List of all channels for a given connection.

/api/channels

A list of all open channels.

/api/vhosts/vhost/channels

A list of all open channels in a specific vhost.

/api/channels/channel

Details about an individual channel.

/api/consumers

A list of all consumers.

/api/consumers/vhost

A list of all consumers in a given virtual host.

/api/exchanges

A list of all exchanges.

/api/exchanges/vhost

A list of all exchanges in a given virtual host.

/api/exchanges/vhost/name

An individual exchange. To PUT an exchange, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"type":"direct","auto_delete":false,"durable":true,"internal":false,"arguments":{}}

The type key is mandatory; other keys are optional.

When DELETEing an exchange you can add the query string parameter if-unused=true. This prevents the delete from succeeding if the exchange is bound to a queue or as a source to another exchange.

/api/exchanges/vhost/name/bindings/source

A list of all bindings in which a given exchange is the source.

/api/exchanges/vhost/name/bindings/destination

A list of all bindings in which a given exchange is the destination.

/api/exchanges/vhost/name/publish

Publish a message to a given exchange. You will need a body looking something like:

{"properties":{},"routing_key":"my key","payload":"my body","payload_encoding":"string"}

All keys are mandatory. The payload_encoding key should be either "string" (in which case the payload will be taken to be the UTF-8 encoding of the payload field) or "base64" (in which case the payload field is taken to be base64 encoded).
If the message is published successfully, the response will look like:

{"routed": true}

routed will be true if the message was sent to at least one queue.

Please note that the HTTP API is not ideal for high performance publishing; the need to create a new TCP connection for each message published can limit message throughput compared to AMQP or other protocols using long-lived connections.

/api/queues

A list of all queues.

/api/queues/vhost

A list of all queues in a given virtual host.

/api/queues/vhost/name

An individual queue. To PUT a queue, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"auto_delete":false,"durable":true,"arguments":{},"node":"rabbit@smacmullen"}

All keys are optional.

When DELETEing a queue you can add the query string parameters if-empty=true and / or if-unused=true. These prevent the delete from succeeding if the queue contains messages, or has consumers, respectively.

/api/queues/vhost/name/bindings

A list of all bindings on a given queue.

/api/queues/vhost/name/contents

Contents of a queue. DELETE to purge. Note you can't GET this.

/api/queues/vhost/name/actions

Actions that can be taken on a queue. POST a body like:

{"action":"sync"}

Currently the actions which are supported are sync and cancel_sync.

/api/queues/vhost/name/get

Get messages from a queue. (This is not an HTTP GET as it will alter the state of the queue.) You should post a body looking like:

{"count":5,"requeue":true,"encoding":"auto","truncate":50000}

count controls the maximum number of messages to get. You may get fewer messages than this if the queue cannot immediately provide them.
requeue determines whether the messages will be removed from the queue. If requeue is true they will be requeued - but their redelivered flag will be set.
encoding must be either "auto" (in which case the payload will be returned as a string if it is valid UTF-8, and base64 encoded otherwise), or "base64" (in which case the payload will always be base64 encoded).
If truncate is present it will truncate the message payload if it is larger than the size given (in bytes).

truncate is optional; all other keys are mandatory.

Please note that the get path in the HTTP API is intended for diagnostics etc - it does not implement reliable delivery and so should be treated as a sysadmin's tool rather than a general API for messaging.

/api/bindings

A list of all bindings.

/api/bindings/vhost

A list of all bindings in a given virtual host.

/api/bindings/vhost/e/exchange/q/queue

A list of all bindings between an exchange and a queue. Remember, an exchange and a queue can be bound together many times! To create a new binding, POST to this URI. You will need a body looking something like this:

{"routing_key":"my_routing_key","arguments":{}}

All keys are optional. The response will contain a Location header telling you the URI of your new binding.

/api/bindings/vhost/e/exchange/q/queue/props

An individual binding between an exchange and a queue. The props part of the URI is a "name" for the binding composed of its routing key and a hash of its arguments. props is the field named "properties_key" from a bindings listing response.

/api/bindings/vhost/e/source/e/destination

A list of all bindings between two exchanges. Similar to the list of all bindings between an exchange and a queue, above.

/api/bindings/vhost/e/source/e/destination/props

An individual binding between two exchanges. Similar to the individual binding between an exchange and a queue, above.

/api/vhosts

A list of all vhosts.

/api/vhosts/name

An individual virtual host. As a virtual host usually only has a name, you do not need an HTTP body when PUTing one of these. To enable / disable tracing, provide a body looking like:

{"tracing":true}

/api/vhosts/name/permissions

A list of all permissions for a given virtual host.

/api/users

A list of all users.

/api/users/name

An individual user. To PUT a user, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"password":"secret","tags":"administrator"}

or:

{"password_hash":"2lmoth8l4H0DViLaK9Fxi6l9ds8=", "tags":"administrator"}

The tags key is mandatory. Either password or password_hash must be set. Setting password_hash to "" will ensure the user cannot use a password to log in. tags is a comma-separated list of tags for the user. Currently recognised tags are administrator, monitoring and management. password_hash must be generated using the algorithm described here.

/api/users/user/permissions

A list of all permissions for a given user.

/api/whoami

Details of the currently authenticated user.

/api/permissions

A list of all permissions for all users.

/api/permissions/vhost/user

An individual permission of a user and virtual host. To PUT a permission, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"configure":".*","write":".*","read":".*"}

All keys are mandatory.

/api/parameters

A list of all vhost-scoped parameters.

/api/parameters/component

A list of all vhost-scoped parameters for a given component.

/api/parameters/component/vhost

A list of all vhost-scoped parameters for a given component and virtual host.

/api/parameters/component/vhost/name

An individual vhost-scoped parameter. To PUT a parameter, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"vhost": "/","component":"federation","name":"local_username","value":"guest"}

/api/global-parameters

A list of all global parameters.

/api/global-parameters/name

An individual global parameter. To PUT a parameter, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"name":"user_vhost_mapping","value":{"guest":"/","rabbit":"warren"}}

/api/policies

A list of all policies.

/api/policies/vhost

A list of all policies in a given virtual host.

/api/policies/vhost/name

An individual policy. To PUT a policy, you will need a body looking something like this:

{"pattern":"^amq.", "definition": {"federation-upstream-set":"all"}, "priority":0, "apply-to": "all"}

pattern and definition are mandatory, priority and apply-to are optional.

/api/aliveness-test/vhost

Declares a test queue, then publishes and consumes a message. Intended for use by monitoring tools. If everything is working correctly, will return HTTP status 200 with body:

{"status":"ok"}

Note: the test queue will not be deleted (to to prevent queue churn if this is repeatedly pinged).

/api/healthchecks/node

Runs basic healthchecks in the current node. Checks that the rabbit application is running, channels and queues can be listed successfully, and that no alarms are in effect. If everything is working correctly, will return HTTP status 200 with body:

{"status":"ok"}

If something fails, will return HTTP status 200 with the body of

{"status":"failed","reason":"string"}

/api/healthchecks/node/node

Runs basic healthchecks in the given node. Checks that the rabbit application is running, list_channels and list_queues return, and that no alarms are raised. If everything is working correctly, will return HTTP status 200 with body: