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Jenkins REST API

Updated May 13, 2020 ·

Overview​

Jenkins provides a machine consumable REST style API for programmatically interacting with the Jenkins server. The documentation can be located on the Jenkins server itself at:

http://server-address/api

You can send REST methods to the Jenkins URL. For example, you can build a job using:

curl jenkinsurl:8080/jobs/jobname/buildnumber, -user username:password

This is an example of sending JSON values for a parametrized build:

curl jenkinsurl:8080/jobs/jobname/buildnumber, \
-user username:password \
-data-urlencode json='{
    "parameter": [
      {"name":"id"},
      {"somevalue":"abcd"},
    ]
}'

Why Use the API?​

The API enables efficient job management and monitoring in Jenkins.

  • Create jobs as code for easy version control
  • Copy and reproduce standardized pipelines
  • Monitor build queue status and server load
  • Restart Jenkins without SSH access