> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.basaltic.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Describe a topic



## OpenAPI

````yaml /api-reference/specs/notifications.yaml get /v1/topics/{topic_id}
openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Basaltic Notifications API
  version: 1.0.0
  description: |
    Publish/subscribe notification topics with email and webhook delivery.

    A topic is a fan-out root. Subscriptions bind it to endpoints;
    publishing to the topic delivers to every confirmed subscription
    whose filter policy matches the message.

    **Publishing is asynchronous.** Publish returns 202 as soon as the
    notification is durable and queued: no delivery has happened yet.
    Fan-out into per-subscription deliveries runs on a worker, so
    publish latency does not grow with subscriber count. Poll
    `GET /v1/messages/{message_id}` for the fan-out state and
    `GET /v1/deliveries?message_id=...` for per-endpoint outcomes.

    **Subscriptions must be confirmed.** Subscribe creates the
    subscription in `pending_confirmation` and sends a token to the
    endpoint — a link for email, a `subscription_confirmation` POST for
    webhooks. Nothing is delivered until the endpoint owner presents
    that token back. The confirmation window is 72 hours; unconfirmed
    subscriptions are reclaimed after it. If the handshake never
    arrived, `POST /v1/subscriptions/{id}/resend-confirmation` mints a
    fresh one — the original token is not recoverable, only its hash is
    stored.

    **Webhook endpoints must be publicly routable.** Endpoints resolving
    to loopback, RFC1918, link-local, or unique-local addresses are
    refused at subscribe time and again at delivery time.

    **Webhook deliveries are signed.** Each POST carries
    `X-Basaltic-Signature: v1,t=<unix-seconds>,s=<hex>`, an HMAC-SHA256
    over `"<t>.<raw-request-body>"` keyed by the subscription's signing
    secret. The secret is returned once by Subscribe and is readable
    afterwards via the signing-secret endpoint. Verify by recomputing
    the MAC over the raw body you received — not a re-serialised copy —
    and reject timestamps more than five minutes from now.
  contact:
    name: Basaltic Support
    email: ping@basaltic.sh
  license:
    name: Proprietary
    url: https://basaltic.sh/terms
servers:
  - url: https://notifications.{region}.basaltic.sh
    description: Regional API endpoint
    variables:
      region:
        default: sa-saopaulo-1
        description: Region code
security:
  - SignatureAuth: []
tags:
  - name: Topics
    description: Fan-out topics
  - name: Subscriptions
    description: Endpoint subscriptions and their confirmation handshake
  - name: Messages
    description: Publishing and delivery status
  - name: Confirmations
    description: Unauthenticated endpoint-owner actions
paths:
  /v1/topics/{topic_id}:
    parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/TopicId'
    get:
      tags:
        - Topics
      summary: Describe a topic
      operationId: describeTopic
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Topic metadata.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TopicResponse'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
components:
  parameters:
    TopicId:
      name: topic_id
      in: path
      required: true
      schema:
        type: string
        format: uuid
        example: a1b2c3d4-5e6f-4a7b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
  schemas:
    TopicResponse:
      type: object
      required:
        - topic
      properties:
        topic:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Topic'
    Topic:
      type: object
      required:
        - id
        - crn
        - name
        - created_at
        - updated_at
      properties:
        id:
          type: string
          format: uuid
          example: a1b2c3d4-5e6f-4a7b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
        crn:
          type: string
          example: crn:notifications:sa-saopaulo-1:my-account:topic/prod-alerts
        name:
          type: string
          description: Unique within the calling account. Immutable.
          example: prod-alerts
        display_name:
          type: string
          description: >-
            Human-facing label; used as the email subject when a notification
            carries none.
          example: Production alerts
        delivery_policy:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/DeliveryPolicy'
        tags:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Tags'
        created_at:
          type: string
          format: date-time
          example: '2026-01-15T09:30:00Z'
        updated_at:
          type: string
          format: date-time
          example: '2026-01-18T11:45:00Z'
    Error:
      type: object
      required:
        - error
      properties:
        error:
          type: object
          required:
            - code
            - message
            - request_id
          properties:
            code:
              type: string
              description: Error code identifying the type of error
              example: INVALID_INPUT
            message:
              type: string
              description: Human-readable error message
              example: Invalid request parameters
            request_id:
              type: string
              format: uuid
              description: Request ID for debugging
              example: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
    DeliveryPolicy:
      type: object
      description: |
        Retry behaviour. Omitted fields fall back to the topic's policy,
        then to platform defaults (6 attempts, 20s to 20m exponential
        backoff with jitter, 15s per-request timeout). A subscription's
        policy is layered on its topic's field by field, so overriding
        only `max_attempts` keeps the topic's backoff curve.
      properties:
        max_attempts:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 10
          description: Total attempts including the first. 1 disables retries.
          example: 6
        min_delay_seconds:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 3600
          description: Backoff before the second attempt.
          example: 20
        max_delay_seconds:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 3600
          description: Cap on the exponential curve.
          example: 1200
        timeout_seconds:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 30
          description: Per-request timeout. Ignored for email.
          example: 15
    Tags:
      type: object
      additionalProperties:
        type: string
      example:
        environment: production
        team: backend
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Authentication required or token invalid
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
          example:
            error:
              code: UNAUTHORIZED
              message: Authentication required
              request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
    Forbidden:
      description: Insufficient permissions
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
          example:
            error:
              code: ACCESS_DENIED
              message: You don't have permission to perform this action
              request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
    NotFound:
      description: Resource not found
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
          example:
            error:
              code: NOT_FOUND
              message: Resource not found
              request_id: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
  securitySchemes:
    SignatureAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: >
        Request signing with an access key issued to a service account. An

        HMAC-SHA256 over a canonical form of the request, close to AWS SigV4.

        The `basaltic` CLI signs for you.


        Send `Authorization`, `X-Date` (UTC, `YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ`) and `X-Nonce`

        (random per request); add `X-Content-Sha256` to bind a body, and

        `X-Amz-Security-Token` when using temporary credentials.


        ```

        Authorization: BASALTIC-HMAC-SHA256
        Credential=<access_key_id>/<date>/<region>/basaltic/basaltic_request,
        SignedHeaders=host;x-date;x-nonce, Signature=<hex>

        ```


        `<region>` is the region code you are calling, or `global` for the
        global

        services. A signature is valid for 5 minutes from `X-Date`, and mutating

        requests are replay-guarded on the nonce.


        **Full signing procedure, including a working implementation:**

        https://docs.basaltic.sh/authentication


        ## Rate limits

        There is no global request budget. A limit applies only where an

        operation documents a `429`, and that operation says what it counts.

        Those responses carry `X-RateLimit-Limit`, `X-RateLimit-Remaining`,

        `X-RateLimit-Reset` and, on a `429`, `Retry-After` — read them rather

        than hard-coding a number. Retrying before `Retry-After` is refused and

        extends the window. Everything else is bounded by quota, not by request

        rate.

````