# api

> Start the datacontract CLI as server application with REST API.

# `datacontract api`

{/* AUTOGENERATED from `datacontract --help`: do not edit by hand; regenerate with update_command_docs.py */}

Start the datacontract CLI as server application with REST API. The OpenAPI documentation as Swagger UI is available on http://localhost:4242. You can execute the commands directly from the Swagger UI. To protect the API, you can set the environment variable DATACONTRACT_CLI_API_KEY to a secret API key. To authenticate, requests must include the header 'x-api-key' with the correct API key. This is highly recommended, as data contract tests may be subject to SQL injections or leak sensitive information. To connect to servers (such as a Snowflake data source), set the credentials as environment variables as documented in https://cli.datacontract.com/#test It is possible to run the API with extra arguments for `uvicorn.run()` as keyword arguments, e.g.: `datacontract api --port 1234 --root_path /datacontract`.

```bash
datacontract api [OPTIONS]
```

| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `--port` | `4242` | Bind socket to this port. |
| `--host` | `127.0.0.1` | Bind socket to this host. Hint: For running in docker, set it to 0.0.0.0 |
| `--debug` / `--no-debug` | — | Enable debug logging |

```bash
datacontract api --port 4242 --host 0.0.0.0
```

Guide: **[Run as a web server](../api.md)**.