Tokens and scopes

uapi authenticates every request (except /healthz, /openapi.json, and /schema/*) with a bearer token. Tokens are created on the router (or over HTTP once a token with uapi:tokens:rw exists), hashed at rest, and authorized against a hierarchical scope tree.

Creating tokens (CLI)

uapi-token create --name <label> --scope <scope> [--scope <scope>...] \
                  [--expires-in <N>[smhd]] [--allowed-cidr <CIDR>...] \
                  [--force]

--name: human-readable label. Must be unique. Must match [A-Za-z0-9_]+ (uci section-name charset; use underscores instead of hyphens). Surfaces in the audit log on every authed request.
--scope: at least one. May repeat. Validated against the known scope tree (see below); --force bypasses.
--expires-in: optional duration. Suffix is one of s/m/h/d. The token returns 401 invalid_token with message: "Token expired" after the deadline passes.
--allowed-cidr: optional source-IP allowlist (IPv4 CIDRs only; may repeat). When set, the token returns 401 invalid_token with message: "Source IP not permitted for this token" from any other source. Bad CIDR shape rejected at mint time.
Output (stdout): the cleartext bearer string, exactly once. Stderr explains it's the only chance to capture it.

The router stores only the salt + sha256(salt + ":" + bearer). The cleartext cannot be recovered.

The token store is re-read from /etc/config/uapi on every request (uci read is millisecond-scale; the fork-per-request model means no cross-request cache anyway). Newly created tokens take effect immediately; no uhttpd reload is needed.

uapi-token list             # short summary: name, scopes, expiry (if set), allowed_cidrs (if set)
uapi-token show <name>      # detailed view (scopes, expiry, cidrs, last_used_at/ip; no secret)
uapi-token revoke <name>    # delete a token

Creating tokens (HTTP)

A token holding uapi:tokens:rw (or *:rw) can mint other tokens over the wire:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -X POST https://router/api/v2/tokens \
     -d '{
       "name": "ci_bot",
       "scopes": ["firewall:rules:rw"],
       "expires_in_seconds": 3600,
       "allowed_cidrs": ["10.0.0.0/24"]
     }'
# response: { "bearer": "<cleartext-once>", "name": "ci_bot" }

The requested scopes must be a strict subset of the caller's. Escalation returns 403 scope_escalation_blocked. The same request with a name that's already in use returns 409 conflict.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN" https://router/api/v2/tokens
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN" https://router/api/v2/tokens/ci_bot
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN" -X DELETE https://router/api/v2/tokens/ci_bot

GET responses never include salt or hash.

Inspecting the current token

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" https://router/api/v2/auth/whoami

Returns {token_id, scopes, source_ip, expires_at, allowed_cidrs, last_used_at, last_used_ip}. No scope check (any authed token can read its own metadata).

Using a token

Authorization: Bearer <bearer string>

Common failure responses:

HTTP	code	Cause	Header
401	`unauthorized`	missing or malformed Authorization header	`WWW-Authenticate: Bearer`
401	`invalid_token`	bearer not in store, or expired, or wrong source IP	`WWW-Authenticate: Bearer`
403	`insufficient_scope`	token's scopes don't cover the request	-
403	`scope_escalation_blocked`	`POST /tokens` requested scopes outside caller's	-
429	`too_many_requests`	per-token rate limit exceeded	`Retry-After: <seconds>`

Scope syntax

<segment>[:<segment>...]:(rw|ro)

Up to three segments (<domain>:<subresource>:<verb> for curated, raw:<package>:<verb> for raw). rw implies ro. * is allowed as any segment for wildcards:

*:rw / *:ro - top-level wildcard, matches everything.
firewall:*:ro - mid-tree wildcard, matches every firewall subresource (rules, zones, redirects, forwardings, defaults) but NOT the bare domain.
*:rules:ro - also valid; matches the rules subresource of every domain that has one.

At equal depth, an exact segment beats a wildcard segment (firewall:rules:rw wins over firewall:*:ro for /firewall/rules).

Scope tree

The authoritative source is src/lib/scope.uc KNOWN_PATHS.

Domain	Subresources
`*`	any
`network`	`interfaces`, `devices`, `routes`, `rules`, `bridge_vlans`, `wireguard_peers`
`wireless`	`devices`, `interfaces`
`firewall`	`zones`, `rules`, `redirects`, `nat`, `forwardings`, `defaults`
`dhcp`	`hosts`, `leases`, `leases6`, `servers`, `dnsmasq`, `odhcpd`
`system`	(singleton), `timeservers`, `password`, `authorized_keys`
`dropbear`	`instances`
`uhttpd`	`instances`, `certs`
`unbound`	`server`
`sqm`	`queues`
`snmpd`	`agents`, `com2secs`, `groups`, `accesses`, `system`
`lldpd`	`config`
`prometheus_node_exporter_lua`	`config`
`vnstat`	`config`, `interfaces`
`packages`	`installed`, `feeds`
`uapi`	`tokens`, `metrics`, `diagnostics`
`raw`	`<any-package>` (composes with the curated domain tree)

Deepest-match-wins

When multiple scopes match a request, the one with the longest matching prefix decides. rw and ro at the same depth: rw wins.

Examples (assume the request targets /firewall/rules/r_01HX...):

Token scopes	Result
`*:rw`	permits
`firewall:rw`	permits
`firewall:rules:rw`	permits
`firewall:zones:rw`	denies
`*:rw`, `firewall:rules:ro` (PUT)	denies (deepest match is `ro`)
`*:rw`, `firewall:rules:ro` (GET)	permits
`firewall:ro`, `firewall:rules:rw` (PUT)	permits (deeper `rw` wins)

Raw access composition

/raw/<package>/<id> requires both trees to permit, independently:

The raw tree: raw / raw:<package> matches.
The domain tree: evaluated against the section's actual type. firewall.rule -> firewall:rules, network.interface -> network:interfaces, etc.

A token with raw:rw but only firewall:rules:ro can read firewall rules via /raw/firewall/... but cannot write them. The domain-tree override always wins. This is intentional: granting raw:rw should not be a backdoor around carefully-crafted curated scopes.

For packages outside the curated set, the domain check uses [<package>]. Granting *:rw or that specific package scope covers it.

Per-token rate limit

Tokens carry optional rate (requests/second) and burst (token-bucket capacity) overrides that beat the global rate-limit default (100 req/s, burst 200). Absent options inherit the global.

Set at mint time via CLI:

uapi-token create --name ci_bot --scope '*:rw' --rate 10 --burst 20

Or via HTTP:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -X POST https://router/api/v2/tokens \
     -d '{
       "name": "ci_bot",
       "scopes": ["firewall:rules:rw"],
       "rate": 10,
       "burst": 20
     }'

Both values must be positive integers; non-positive or non-integer values return 422 validation_failed. The uci options on the token's section are option rate '<N>' and option burst '<N>'; setting them directly via uci set is also supported and takes effect on the next request.

Recommended token shapes

Use case	Scopes	Flags
Terraform admin	`*:rw`	`--expires-in 90d`
Terraform per-domain	`firewall:rw`	`--expires-in 90d`
Read-only dashboard	`*:ro`	`--allowed-cidr <office>`
Monitoring (Prometheus scrape)	`uapi:metrics:ro`, `uapi:diagnostics:ro`	`--allowed-cidr <prom-host>/32`
Short-lived CI job	`firewall:rules:rw`, `network:routes:rw`	`--expires-in 1h --allowed-cidr <ci>`
Operator that mints other tokens	`uapi:tokens:rw`, plus the scopes it needs to delegate	`--expires-in 30d`
Long-tail via `/raw/`	`*:rw` (or `raw:rw` + the specific domain scopes)	-