Set up your API Center portal

This article shows you how to set up the API Center portal (preview), an Azure-managed website that developers and other stakeholders in your organization can use to discover the APIs in your API center. Signed-in users can browse and filter APIs and view API details such as API definitions and documentation. User access to API information is based on Microsoft Entra ID and Azure role-based access control.

Prerequisites

• An API center in your Azure subscription. If you haven't created one already, see Quickstart: Create your API center.

• Permissions to create an app registration in a Microsoft Entra tenant associated with your Azure subscription, and permissions to grant access to data in your API center.

Create Microsoft Entra app registration

First configure an app registration in your Microsoft Entra ID tenant. The app registration enables the API Center portal to access data from your API center on behalf of a signed-in user.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to Microsoft Entra ID > App registrations.

2. Select + New registration.

3. On the Register an application page, set the values as follows:

   1. Set Name to a meaningful name such as api-center-portal
   2. Under Supported account types, select Accounts in this organizational directory (Single tenant).
   3. In Redirect URI, select Single-page application (SPA) and set the URI. Enter the URI of your API Center portal deployment, in the following form: https://<service-name>.portal.<location>.azure-api-center.ms. Replace <service name> and <location> with the name of your API center and the location where it's deployed, Example: https://myapicenter.portal.eastus.azure-api-center.ms.
   4. Select Register.

When enabling the API Center portal in the Visual Studio Code extension for API Center, also configure the following redirect URIs.

1. On the Manage > Authentication page, Select Add a platform and select Mobile and desktop applications.

2. Configure the following three custom redirect URIs:
   https://vscode.dev/redirect
http://localhost
ms-appx-web://Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin/<application-client-id>
   

   Replace <application-client-id> with the application (client) ID of this app. You can find this value on the Overview page.

Configure and publish the API Center portal

After you create the API Center portal app registration, you need to configure and publish the API center portal. Complete the following steps in the Azure portal.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your API center.
2. In the left menu, under API Center portal, select Portal settings.
3. On the Identity provider tab, select Start set up. On the screen that appears, do the following:
   1. In Client ID, enter the Application (client) ID from the app registration you created in the previous section.
   2. Confirm that the Redirect URI is the value you configured in the app registration.
   3. Select Save + publish.
4. On the Site profile tab, enter a website name that you want to appear in the top bar of the API Center portal. Select Save + publish.
5. On the API visibility tab, optionally add filters for APIs that you want to make discoverable in the portal. Select Save + publish. Learn more about API visibility

You can now access the API Center portal:

• On the Portal settings page, select View API Center portal to open the portal in a new tab.
• Or, enter the following URL in your browser, replacing <service-name> and <location> with the name of your API center and the location where it's deployed:
  https://<service-name>.portal.<location>.azure-api-center.ms

API visibility

API visibility settings control which APIs are discoverable (visible) to API Center portal users. The API Center portal uses the data plane API to retrieve and display APIs, and by default retrieves all APIs in your API center. Visibility settings apply to all users of the API Center portal.

To make only specific APIs visible, go to the API visibility tab in the API Center portal settings. Here, add filter conditions for APIs based on built-in or custom API metadata properties. For instance, you can choose to display APIs only of certain types (like REST or GraphQL) or based on certain specification formats (such as OpenAPI). Additionally, you can select values of custom metadata properties that categorize your APIs.

.

Enable sign-in to portal by Microsoft Entra users and groups

To enable sign-in, assign the Azure API Center Data Reader role to users or groups in your organization, scoped to your API center.

For detailed prerequisites and steps to assign a role to users and groups, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal. Brief steps follow:

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your API center.
2. In the left menu, select Access control (IAM) > + Add role assignment.
3. In the Add role assignment pane, set the values as follows:
   1. On the Role page, search for and select Azure API Center Data Reader. Select Next.
   2. On the Members page, In Assign access to, select User, group, or service principal > + Select members.
   3. On the Select members page, search for and select the users or groups to assign the role to. Click Select and then Next.
   4. Review the role assignment, and select Review + assign.

After you configure access to the portal, configured users can sign in to the portal and view the APIs in your API center.

Enable access to test console for APIs

You can configure user settings to granularly authorize access to APIs and their specific versions in your API center. For example, configure certain API versions to use API keys for authentication, and create an access policy that permits only specific users to authenticate using those keys. This policy also applies to the "Try this API" capability for APIs in the API Center portal, ensuring that only portal users with the appropriate access policy can use the test console for those API versions. Learn more about authorizing access to APIs

API discovery and consumption in the API Center portal

The API Center portal supports and streamlines the work of developers who use and create APIs within your organization. Signed-in users can:

• Search for APIs by name or using AI-assisted semantic search

• Filter APIs by type or lifecycle stage

• View API details and definitions including endpoints, methods, parameters, and response formats

• Download API definitions to a local computer or open them in Visual Studio Code

• Try out APIs that support API key authentication or OAuth 2.0 authorization

Search with AI

In the Standard plan of Azure API Center, the API Center portal supplements basic name-based API search with AI-assisted semantic search built on API names and descriptions. Users can search for APIs using natural language queries, making it easier to find APIs based on their intent. For example, if a developer searches for "I need an API for inventory management," the portal can suggest relevant APIs, even if their names or descriptions don't include those exact words.

To use AI-assisted search when signed in to the API Center portal, click in the search box, select Search with AI, and enter a query.

API Management and API Center portals

The Azure API Management and Azure API Center services both provide portals for developers to discover and consume APIs:

• The API Management developer portal allows users to find managed APIs, learn how to use them, request access, and test them.
• The API Center portal (preview) is a multi-gateway portal where users can discover and filter the organization's complete API inventory.

While the two portals share some features, they also have distinct differences. The following table compares current capabilities to help determine which portal to use. Some organizations may prefer one portal, while others may need both.

¹ The API Center portal can contain all APIs in your organization, including those managed in Azure API Management and other platforms, as well as unmanaged APIs and APIs under development.

Related content

• Enable and view Azure API Center portal in Visual Studio Code