Login user

Version 4.0.26.6

Create an access token that runs as a given user.

This can only be called by an authenticated admin user. It allows that admin to generate a new authentication token for the user with the given user id. That token can then be used for subsequent API calls - which are then performed as that target user.

The target user does not need to have a pre-existing API client_id/client_secret pair. And, no such credentials are created by this call.

This allows for building systems where api user authentication for an arbitrary number of users is done outside of Looker and funneled through a single 'service account' with admin permissions. Note that a new access token is generated on each call. If target users are going to be making numerous API calls in a short period then it is wise to cache this authentication token rather than call this before each of those API calls.

See 'login' for more detail on the access token and how to use it.

In Looker (Google Cloud core) this call will be denied unless all of the following criteria are met:

  1. The calling user is an API-only Service Account with the Admin role
  2. The target user is an Embed User type Regular user types can not be impersonated in Looker (Google Cloud core). If your application needs to call the API for these users, use OAuth authentication instead.

Request

POST /login/{user_id}
Datatype
Description
Request
HTTP Request
path
HTTP Path
Expand HTTP Path definition...
user_id
string
Id of user.
query
HTTP Query
Expand HTTP Query definition...
associative
boolean
When true (default), API calls using the returned access_token are attributed to the admin user who created the access_token. When false, API activity is attributed to the user the access_token runs as. False requires a looker license.

Response

200: Access token with metadata.

Datatype
Description
(object)
access_token
string
Access Token used for API calls
token_type
string
Type of Token
expires_in
integer
Number of seconds before the token expires
refresh_token
string
Refresh token which can be used to obtain a new access token

400: Bad Request

Datatype
Description
(object)
message
string
Error details
documentation_url
string
Documentation link

403: Permission Denied

Datatype
Description
(object)
message
string
Error details
documentation_url
string
Documentation link

404: Not Found

Datatype
Description
(object)
message
string
Error details
documentation_url
string
Documentation link

429: Too Many Requests

Datatype
Description
(object)
message
string
Error details
documentation_url
string
Documentation link

Examples