How to Retrieve User Information from Terraform Enterprise Runs using API

Introduction

This article outlines the procedure to retrieve detailed user information associated with HCP Terraform or Terraform Enterprise runs using the API. You can use this method to extract the user_id of the individual who triggered a specific run and then fetch their username. This information is useful for auditing, troubleshooting, and monitoring purposes.

Prerequisites

• An API token with permissions to access run and user data.
• The ID of the specific run you want to investigate (e.g., run-EXA5Ldb78CDjaDQS).

Procedure

Follow these steps to identify the user who initiated a Terraform run.

Step 1: Retrieve the Run Event Data

To identify the user associated with a specific run, make an API call to the runs API. This response contains the user_id of the user who created the run.

$ curl \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://<HOSTNAME>/api/v2/runs/<RUN_ID>/run-events | jq .

Note:

• Replace <HOSTNAME> with your Terraform Enterprise hostname or app.terraform.io for HCP Terraform.
• Replace <RUN_ID> with the actual ID of the run.
• Replace $TOKEN with your API token.

The jq . command formats the JSON output for readability.

Step 2: Fetch User Details with the User ID

Once you have the user_id from the previous step, you can retrieve the username and other details for that user.

$ curl \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json" \
  https://<HOSTNAME>/api/v2/users/<USER_ID> | jq .

Note:

• Replace <HOSTNAME> with your Terraform Enterprise hostname or app.terraform.io for HCP Terraform.
• Replace <USER_ID> with the user_id obtained in Step 1.
• Replace $TOKEN with your API token.

The API response will contain detailed information about the user, including their username.

Additional Information

• For more details on managing users via the API, refer to the Users API Documentation.