Import an image from an object URL
Registers an image for import from a presigned object URL — no image
bytes flow through this API. Upload your disk to any bucket you control
(our object store, AWS S3, MinIO, …) using a robust multipart S3 client,
then pass a presigned GET URL as source_url.
The import runs in the background: the response is 202 with status=importing, and a worker fetches the URL, converts it to the raw base (qcow2 / raw / vmdk / vhd / vhdx / vdi are accepted), and imports it into Ceph. The row flips to active (or error, with import_error set) once it finishes — poll GET /v1/images/ for the status.
A name behaves like a movable tag: by default the new image becomes the
“current” version for its (name, architecture), so future launches of
that name boot the new bits. Older versions stay bootable by id and by
name:version. Pass current: false to stage a version without
switching, then promote it later with PATCH /v1/images/
(current=true).
version identifies the build within the name and must be unique there;
omit it and the server stamps a UTC timestamp. Publishing twice under one
name with the same version is a 409, not a second anonymous build.
Authorizations
BASALTIC-HMAC-SHA256 request signing for service-account (access-key) auth.
An AWS-SigV4-style scheme: an HMAC-SHA256 over a canonical request, keyed by a
signing key derived from your secret access key. The basaltic CLI does this
for you; the steps below are for a non-CLI client.
Headers you send
Authorization(this scheme) — format below.X-Date: request time in UTC, compact ISO-8601 basic:YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ(e.g.20240115T103000Z). Must be within 5 minutes of server time.X-Nonce: random per-request value (e.g. 16+ bytes of hex). Required — it is what makes each signature unique so the server can reject replays.X-Datealone is not enough (one-second resolution;UNSIGNED-PAYLOADnever enters the canonical request).X-Content-Sha256(optional): lowercase-hex SHA-256 of the request body, to bind the exact bytes to the signature — the server re-hashes and rejects a mismatch. Omit it, and put the literalUNSIGNED-PAYLOADin the body-hash slot, for an empty body or a streaming upload that shouldn't be buffered.
Authorization header format
<date>:YYYYMMDD(the day part of X-Date).<region>: target region code (e.g.sa-saopaulo-1), orglobalfor the region-agnostic (IAM) endpoints.<service>:basaltic.SignedHeaders: the covered header names, lowercased and sorted, joined by;— at minimumhost;x-date;x-nonce(all three required).Signature: lowercase hex from step 4.- Note the
,(comma + space) between the three Authorization parameters.
Step 1 — canonical request
Join these six lines with \n (LF):
canonical-path: the URL-escaped request path (e.g./v1/compute/instances).canonical-query: each query key and value URL-encoded, sorted by key then value, joined by&; empty string when there is no query.canonical-headers: for each signed header,name:value(name lowercased, value trimmed), sorted by name, each followed by a trailing\n.signed-headers: the same names, lowercased, sorted, joined by;.body-hash: lowercase-hex SHA-256 of the body, or the literalUNSIGNED-PAYLOAD.
Step 2 — string to sign
Join with \n:
The second line is the credential date at midnight — NOT the X-Date value — and the third is the credential scope without the access-key id.
Step 3 — derive the signing key (HMAC chain over your secret)
Step 4 — signature
Example (POST with a JSON body)
Request validity
- Valid for 5 minutes from the X-Date timestamp.
- The signature must cover at least
host,x-date, andx-nonce. - Mutating requests (POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE) that present a signed nonce are
anti-replay guarded for the drift window; omitting
X-Nonceis rejected.
Rate limits
There is no global request budget: a limit applies only where an operation
documents a 429 response, and each such endpoint counts its own fixed
window. Everything else is bounded by quota, not by request rate.
Per-endpoint request limits
A few endpoints are limited in front of the handler, counted per caller —
the authenticated principal when the request carries credentials, the
client IP otherwise. On this API surface that is the public region
catalogue, GET /v1/regions: it guards no secret, and the budget is there
because the catalogue is unauthenticated and database-backed.
An operation that is limited says so by documenting a 429. These
responses — 429 and 2xx — carry the budget, so a client can pace
itself instead of discovering the ceiling by hitting it:
X-RateLimit-Limit— requests allowed per window on this endpoint. Authoritative: read it rather than hard-coding a number.X-RateLimit-Remaining— requests left in the window (0 on a 429).X-RateLimit-Reset— seconds until the window resets. A duration, not a timestamp, so it needs no clock agreement.Retry-After— on a 429 only; seconds to wait. Never zero.
Over the limit the response is 429 with error code RATE_LIMITED. Honor
Retry-After — retrying sooner is refused and extends the window, since
the refused attempt is itself counted.
Service-level limits
Some resources meter the work itself rather than the request, and are
documented on the operation. They return 429 with their own error code
and no rate-limit headers, because the budget is not a per-endpoint window:
sending email is capped per (account, identity) per second
(EMAIL_RATE_LIMIT), and charge attempts are capped per invoice
(INVOICE_PAYMENT_ATTEMPTS_EXHAUSTED).
Headers
Optional client-generated key that makes a create replay-safe. Retrying a request with the same key returns the original outcome verbatim instead of creating a duplicate resource. Reusing a key with a different request body is rejected (422); a request whose key is still being processed returns 409. Records are honored for 24 hours. Use a UUID or similarly unique token.
255Body
Movable tag name (e.g. debian-13); the new image becomes its
current version. Names are shared across a tag's builds — what
identifies one build is version.
"debian-13"
Source disk format at source_url; converted to the raw base on import.
qcow2, raw, vmdk, vhd, vhdx, vdi "qcow2"
Presigned https GET URL to the disk in an object store you control. Fetched once by the import worker (which rejects private/link-local targets). Not retained after import.
"https://bucket.s3.example.com/debian-13.qcow2?X-Amz-Signature=..."
"Debian 13 (Trixie)"
public, private "private"
"debian"
"13"
"amd64"
Identifies this build within name, and must be unique there —
re-publishing a version that a tag already carries is a 409. Omit
it and the server stamps a UTC timestamp, so every build is
addressable as name:version whether or not you labelled it.
"20260807"
Make this the current version for its (name, architecture) once active.
true
The day this release stops receiving free security updates. Omit it and the image inherits the date the name's current version carries, so re-publishing a tag can't quietly stop tracking its release.
"2026-08-31"
0 <= x <= 1638410
x >= 01024
Response
Image registered for import