Overview

Atlassian applications offer several authentication options for API access. Below are the ones currently supported by the Command Line Interface (CLI) in the latest releases.

Application	Basic Authentication	Session Authentication	OAuth and Related Tokens	Discussion
Jira, Confluence Cloud	No longer available	No longer available	Atlassian Personal Access Tokens (also known as API Tokens) Parameters user (email address) token or password (access token)	Atlassian has removed support for use of Basic and Session authentication Deprecation notice - Jira - JCLI-1468 Deprecation notice - Confluence - CSOAP-990 UPM client also supports the same authentication methods CLI 8.4 or higher can use the token parameter for their access token instead of password parameter - either works the same (except for a couple of cases where a real password is needed) If you are NOT using the email address and API token for your user credentials for accessing Cloud sites, you will likely receive: Remote error: User is not authorized to perform the request. Response code: 401.
Jira Server	Parameters user (user name) password	Parameters user (for login) password (for login) login (subsequent actions) Default with automatic login	Using Personal Access Tokens Requires 8.14 or higher. Parameters token	Let default support use automatic session authentication Only special case, advanced scripting should bother with using login action and saved sessions UPM client also supports the same authentication methods Personal Access Token Restrictions See Restrictions section below for general information
Confluence Server	Parameters user (user name) password	Parameters user (for login) password (for login) login (subsequent actions) Default with automatic login	Using Personal Access Tokens Requires 7.9 or higher. Parameters token	Let default support use automatic session authentication Only special case, advanced scripting should bother with using login action and saved sessions UPM client also supports the same authentication methods Personal Access Token Restrictions See Restrictions section below for general information Cannot be used for user actions (getUserList, addUser, removeUser, editUser, ...) when admin security (websudo) is enabled.
Bitbucket Server	Parameters user (user name) password		Personal Access Tokens Parameters token	UPM client also supports the same authentication methods See also Access Tokens. Personal Access Token Restrictions See Restrictions section below for general information
Bitbucket Cloud	No longer available		App passwords parameters user (user name) password (app password) Access tokens (11.0 and higher) parameters token	Bitbucket app passwords can be generated by going to your account settings and look for app passwords Bitbucket resource scoped access tokens - see Access Tokens for Bitbucket Cloud. These tokens have restricted capabilities, so should only be used for actions that can be achieved with the bounds of the specific restrictions otherwise the action will fail likely with an error like this. `Remote error: This API is not accessible by this authentication mechanism` . This is especially true for repository and project access tokens. Where appropriate, access tokens are recommended for automations - they are easily managed by resource admins and have independent 429 limits.
Slack	Parameters token			See Access Tokens for Slack.

Personal Access Tokens for Server and Data Center

Personal access tokens have some good advantages in specific cases, but there are also some severe restrictions:

Personal access tokens can be created in the UI by going to your profile - see Atlassian documentation on personal access tokens.

Restrictions

Some server remote capabilities used in various CLI actions may not support access using personal access tokens - actions like renderRequest or actions that use similar support under the covers depending on action parameters used. In this case, you receive an error message such as:
Client error: Action or capability not available when using token authentication. Use user and password parameters instead.

Sometimes, you can avoid restricted capabilities by adjusting the parameters you use on the action. Otherwise, you need to revert to the standard user and password support.
If secure administrator sessions (websudo) are turned on for your instance and you attempt a secure administration action, websudo permission errors occur. Turn off the websudo for your site or revert to the standard user and password support.

Appfire Command Line Interface (CLI)

Authentication options

Overview

Personal Access Token Restrictions

Personal Access Token Restrictions

Personal Access Token Restrictions

Personal Access Tokens for Server and Data Center

Restrictions