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Azure DevOps Services REST API Reference

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Welcome to the Azure DevOps Services/Azure DevOps Server REST API Reference.

Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs are service endpoints that support sets of HTTP operations (methods), which provide create, retrieve, update, or delete access to the service's resources. This article walks you through:

  • The basic components of a REST API request/response pair.
  • Overviews of creating and sending a REST request, and handling the response.

Most REST APIs are accessible through our client libraries, which can be used to greatly simplify your client code.

Components of a REST API request/response pair

A REST API request/response pair can be separated into five components:

  1. The request URI, in the following form: VERB https://{instance}[/{team-project}]/_apis[/{area}]/{resource}?api-version={version}

    • instance: The Azure DevOps Services organization or TFS server you're sending the request to. They are structured as follows:
      • Azure DevOps Services: dev.azure.com/{organization}
      • TFS: {server:port}/tfs/{collection} (the default port is 8080, and the value for collection should be DefaultCollection but can be any collection)
    • resource path: The resource path is as follows: _apis/{area}/{resource}. For example _apis/wit/workitems.
    • api-version: Every API request should include an api-version to avoid having your app or service break as APIs evolve. api-versions are in the following format: {major}.{minor}[-{stage}[.{resource-version}]], for example:
      • api-version=1.0
      • api-version=1.2-preview
      • api-version=2.0-preview.1

    Note: area and team-project are optional, depending on the API request. Check out the TFS to REST API version mapping matrix below to find which REST API versions apply to your version of TFS.

  2. HTTP request message header fields:

    • A required HTTP method (also known as an operation or verb), which tells the service what type of operation you are requesting. Azure REST APIs support GET, HEAD, PUT, POST, and PATCH methods.
    • Optional additional header fields, as required by the specified URI and HTTP method. For example, an Authorization header that provides a bearer token containing client authorization information for the request.

  3. Optional HTTP request message body fields, to support the URI and HTTP operation. For example, POST operations contain MIME-encoded objects that are passed as complex parameters.

    • For POST or PUT operations, the MIME-encoding type for the body should be specified in the Content-type request header as well. Some services require you to use a specific MIME type, such as application/json.

  4. HTTP response message header fields:

    • An HTTP status code, ranging from 2xx success codes to 4xx or 5xx error codes. Alternatively, a service-defined status code may be returned, as indicated in the API documentation.
    • Optional additional header fields, as required to support the request's response, such as a Content-type response header.

  5. Optional HTTP response message body fields:

    • MIME-encoded response objects may be returned in the HTTP response body, such as a response from a GET method that is returning data. Typically, these objects are returned in a structured format such as JSON or XML, as indicated by the Content-type response header. For example, when you request an access token from Azure AD, it will be returned in the response body as the access_token element, one of several name/value paired objects in a data collection. In this example, a response header of Content-Type: application/json is also included.

Create the request

Authenticate

There are many ways to authenticate your application or service with Azure DevOps Services or TFS. The following table is an excellent way to decide which method is the best for you:

Type of application Description example Authentication mechanism Code samples
Interactive client-side Client application, that allows user interaction, calling Azure DevOps Services REST APIs Console application enumerating projects in an organization Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) sample
Interactive JavaScript GUI based JavaScript application AngularJS single page app displaying project information for a user MSAL sample
Non-interactive client-side Headless text only client side application Console app displaying all bugs assigned to a user Device Profile sample
Interactive web GUI based web application Custom Web dashboard displaying build summaries OAuth sample
TFS application TFS app using the Client OM library TFS extension displaying team bug dashboards Client Libraries sample
Azure DevOps Services Extension Azure DevOps Services extension Azure DevOps extension samples VSS Web Extension SDK sample walkthrough

Note: You can find more information on authentication on our authentication guidance page.

Assemble the request

Azure DevOps Services

For Azure DevOps Services, instance is dev.azure.com/{organization}, so the pattern looks like this:

VERB https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis[/{area}]/{resource}?api-version={version}

For example, here's how to get a list of team projects in a Azure DevOps Services organization.

curl -u {username}[:{personalaccesstoken}] https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/projects?api-version=2.0

If you wish to provide the personal access token through an HTTP header, you must first convert it to a Base64 string (the following example shows how to convert to Base64 using C#). (Some tools apply a Base64 encoding by default. If you are trying the API via such tools, Base64 encoding of the PAT is not required) The resulting string can then be provided as an HTTP header in the format:

Authorization: Basic BASE64PATSTRING

Here it is in C# using the [HttpClient class](/previous-versions/visualstudio/hh193681(v=vs.118).

public static async void GetProjects()
{
	try
	{
		var personalaccesstoken = "PAT_FROM_WEBSITE";

		using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
		{
			client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(
				new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

			client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic",
				Convert.ToBase64String(
					System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(
						string.Format("{0}:{1}", "", personalaccesstoken))));

			using (HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(
						"https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/projects"))
			{
				response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
				string responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
				Console.WriteLine(responseBody);
			}
		}
	}
	catch (Exception ex)
	{
		Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
	}
}

Most samples on this site use Personal Access Tokens as they're a compact example for authenticating with the service. However, there are a variety of authentication mechanisms available for Azure DevOps Services including MSAL, OAuth and Session Tokens. Refer to the Authentication section for guidance on which one is best suited for your scenario.

TFS

For TFS, instance is {server:port}/tfs/{collection} and by default the port is 8080. The default collection is DefaultCollection, but can be any collection.

Here's how to get a list of team projects from TFS using the default port and collection.

curl -u {username}[:{personalaccesstoken}] https://{server}:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/_apis/projects?api-version=2.0

The examples above use personal access tokens, which requires that you create a personal access token.

Process the response

You should get a response like this.

{
    "value": [
        {
            "id": "eb6e4656-77fc-42a1-9181-4c6d8e9da5d1",
            "name": "Fabrikam-Fiber-TFVC",
            "url": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projects/eb6e4656-77fc-42a1-9181-4c6d8e9da5d1",
            "description": "TeamFoundationVersionControlprojects",
            "collection": {
                "id": "d81542e4-cdfa-4333-b082-1ae2d6c3ad16",
                "name": "DefaultCollection",
                "url": "https: //dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projectCollections/d81542e4-cdfa-4333-b082-1ae2d6c3ad16",
                "collectionUrl": "https: //dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/DefaultCollection"
            },
            "defaultTeam": {
                "id": "66df9be7-3586-467b-9c5f-425b29afedfd",
                "name": "Fabrikam-Fiber-TFVCTeam",
                "url": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projects/eb6e4656-77fc-42a1-9181-4c6d8e9da5d1/teams/66df9be7-3586-467b-9c5f-425b29afedfd"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "6ce954b1-ce1f-45d1-b94d-e6bf2464ba2c",
            "name": "Fabrikam-Fiber-Git",
            "url": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projects/6ce954b1-ce1f-45d1-b94d-e6bf2464ba2c",
            "description": "Gitprojects",
            "collection": {
                "id": "d81542e4-cdfa-4333-b082-1ae2d6c3ad16",
                "name": "DefaultCollection",
                "url": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projectCollections/d81542e4-cdfa-4333-b082-1ae2d6c3ad16",
                "collectionUrl": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/DefaultCollection"
            },
            "defaultTeam": {
                "id": "8bd35c5e-30bb-4834-a0c4-d576ce1b8df7",
                "name": "Fabrikam-Fiber-GitTeam",
                "url": "https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam-fiber-inc/_apis/projects/6ce954b1-ce1f-45d1-b94d-e6bf2464ba2c/teams/8bd35c5e-30bb-4834-a0c4-d576ce1b8df7"
            }
        }
    ],
    "count": 2
}

The response is JSON. That's generally what you'll get back from the REST APIs although there are a few exceptions, like Git blobs.

Now you should be able to look around the specific API areas like work item tracking or Git and get to the resources that you need. Keep reading to learn more about the general patterns that are used in these APIs.

API and TFS version mapping

Below you'll find a quick mapping of REST API versions and their corresponding TFS releases. All API versions will work on the server version mentioned as well as later versions.

TFS Version REST API Version Build Version
Azure DevOps Server vNext 7.2
Azure DevOps Server 2022.1 7.1 versions >= 19.225.34309.2
Azure DevOps Server 2022 7.0 versions >= 19.205.33122.1
Azure DevOps Server 2020 6.0 versions >= 18.170.30525.1
Azure DevOps Server 2019 5.0 versions >= 17.143.28621.4
TFS 2018 Update 3 4.1 versions >= 16.131.28106.2
TFS 2018 Update 2 4.1 versions >= 16.131.27701.1
TFS 2018 Update 1 4.0 versions >= 16.122.27409.2
TFS 2018 RTW 4.0 versions >= 16.122.27102.1
TFS 2017 Update 2 3.2 versions >= 15.117.26714.0
TFS 2017 Update 1 3.1 versions >= 15.112.26301.0
TFS 2017 RTW 3.0 versions >= 15.105.25910.0
TFS 2015 Update 4 2.3 versions >= 14.114.26403.0
TFS 2015 Update 3 2.3 versions >= 14.102.25423.0
TFS 2015 Update 2 2.2 versions >= 14.95.25122.0
TFS 2015 Update 1 2.1 versions >= 14.0.24712.0
TFS 2015 RTW 2.0 versions >= 14.0.23128.0

Related Content

Check out the Integrate documentation for REST API samples and use cases.

Client Libraries

Discover the client libraries for these REST APIs.

Where are the earlier versions of REST APIs? (Before 4.1)

We recently made a change to our engineering system and documentation generation process; we made this change to provide clearer, more in-depth, and more accurate documentation for everyone trying to use these REST APIs. Due to technical constraints, we are only able to document API Version 4.1 and newer using this method. We believe the documentation for API Version 4.1 and newer will be easier to use due to this change.

If you are working in TFS or are looking for the older versions of REST APIs, you can take a look at the REST API Overview for TFS 2015, 2017, and 2018.