Files
ferrix/docs/content/docs/reference/http-api.md
T
Rayhaan JaufeerallyandClaude Fable 5.1 35ce2e2e57 Status page: routes in order of selection, lookup by origin AS
Received routes are listed from the best down: the RIB gains ranked_routes,
which runs selection again without the winners, so the second route is the
one that would be installed were the best withdrawn. The API gives each
route its rank, and the page shows it as a numbered badge after the star.

The lookup box moves to the received-routes table, which is what it filters,
and takes an AS number: a new `origin` query parameter finds every route
whose path ends in that AS, with an empty path counting as the local AS.

Long cells are clamped to a few lines with a control to open them, and an
AS repeated along a path (prepending) is shown once with a ×N badge. Peer
names are bold and dark, not underlined links, so a row can be found by
its name among the addresses and numbers.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-07 22:09:07 +02:00

9.8 KiB

+++ title = "HTTP API Reference" description = "Describes the endpoints of the Ferrix HTTP interface: the JSON API, the event stream, the status page, and the metrics endpoint." weight = 3

[extra] nav = "HTTP API" +++

Ferrix serves its HTTP interface on the address configured with http_endpoint. All endpoints are read-only and use the GET method.

An error response has a text/plain body that describes the error. The server returns the following error statuses:

Status Meaning
400 (Bad Request) A query parameter is invalid.
500 (Internal Server Error) The server could not produce the response, for example because the metrics could not be encoded.
503 (Service Unavailable) A table is unavailable because the daemon is shutting down.

Caution

The HTTP interface does not require authentication. Bind it to a loopback address, or place it behind a reverse proxy that requires authentication.

Endpoints

Endpoint Description
/ Redirects to /statusz.
/statusz Status page.
/api/status Router ID, AS number, uptime, table sizes, and whether control communities are enabled (control_communities).
/api/config The configuration that was read at startup.
/api/peers Configured neighbors and their sessions.
/api/routes/local Originated routes.
/api/routes/received Received routes.
/api/routes/rejected Rejected routes, by neighbor.
/api/rpki RPKI cache, data, and data age.
/api/kernel Kernel route installation state and interfaces.
/api/events Session and route changes, as server-sent events.
/metricz Prometheus metrics. See Metrics Reference.

Peers

/api/peers returns an array with one object for each configured neighbor:

{
  "name": "test-peer",
  "peer_addr": "127.0.0.1:64815",
  "peer_asn": 65001,
  "state": "Established",
  "direction": "inbound",
  "local_addr": "127.0.0.1:1790",
  "uptime_secs": 2,
  "four_octet_asn": true,
  "extended_next_hop": false,
  "address_families": ["IPv4 unicast", "IPv6 unicast"],
  "add_path_receive": [],
  "add_path_send": [],
  "routes": 1,
  "rejected_routes": 1,
  "held_routes": 0,
  "role": null,
  "role_confirmed": null,
  "last_error": null,
  "retry_at_unix": null,
  "graceful_restart": {
    "restart_time_secs": 120,
    "notification": true,
    "address_families": ["IPv4 unicast", "IPv6 unicast"],
    "forwarding_preserved": ["IPv4 unicast", "IPv6 unicast"]
  },
  "stale_routes": null,
  "stale_until_unix": null
}
Field Description
state Session state: Established, Connecting, Backoff, Idle, or Passive (a passive neighbor that has no session).
direction inbound if the neighbor initiated the connection, outbound otherwise.
routes Number of the neighbor's routes in the routing table.
rejected_routes Number of the neighbor's routes rejected by its import policy.
held_routes Number of held routes: routes rejected for a reason that can change without a new UPDATE, such as RPKI validity or next hop resolution.
role_confirmed Whether the neighbor advertised a BGP role that matches the configured role.
retry_at_unix For a neighbor without a session, the time of the next connection attempt.
graceful_restart Graceful restart, if both neighbors advertised it: the restart time of the neighbor, whether the N bit is in use (RFC 8538), the address families whose routes are retained, and those for which the neighbor preserved its forwarding state.
stale_routes Number of the neighbor's routes retained from its previous session and not yet advertised again, or null if there are none.
stale_until_unix For a restarting neighbor without a session, the time at which its retained routes are removed.

Received Routes

/api/routes/received returns received routes, one page at a time. Table 1 lists the query parameters.

Parameter Description
prefix Returns all routes for the prefix, in order of path selection. Example: prefix=193.0.0.0/21.
address Returns all routes for the prefixes that contain the address, most specific first. Example: address=193.0.0.1.
within Returns the routes for the prefix and all more specific prefixes. Example: within=193.0.0.0/16.
peer Returns only routes from the neighbor, identified by name or address.
origin Returns only routes originated by the AS: the last AS of the AS path. The value is a number, with or without the prefix AS. Routes with an empty AS path are originated by the local AS. Example: origin=AS64496.
best If true, returns only the best path for each prefix.
limit Specifies the approximate number of routes in a page. Default: 1000. Maximum: 100000.
after Returns the page after the specified prefix. Use the next_after value of the previous page.
before Returns the page before the specified prefix. Use the prev_before value of the next page.

A page contains only complete prefixes. It ends before the prefix whose routes would exceed limit, but always contains at least one prefix. Prefixes are sorted by address, with IPv4 prefixes first.

{
  "routes": [{
    "peer_name": "test-peer",
    "peer_addr": "127.0.0.1:64815",
    "peer_asn": 65001,
    "prefix": "203.0.113.0/24",
    "path_id": 0,
    "best": true,
    "rank": 1,
    "stale": false,
    "rpki": null,
    "aspa": null,
    "summary": {
      "origin": "IGP",
      "as_path": [65001],
      "next_hop": "10.0.0.2",
      "med": null,
      "local_pref": null,
      "communities": ["65001:1"],
      "large_communities": [],
      "other": [{ "name": "aggregator", "value": "AS65001 10.0.0.2" }]
    },
    "attributes": [ ... ]
  }],
  "next_after": null,
  "prev_before": null
}
Field Description
path_id ADD-PATH path identifier, or 0.
best Whether the route is the best path for the prefix.
rank The position of the route in path selection for the prefix: 1 for the best path, 2 for the path that would be selected if the best path were withdrawn, and so on.
stale Whether the route is retained from a previous session of the neighbor and has not been advertised again (graceful restart).
rpki, aspa Route origin validation and ASPA verification state, if RPKI validation is configured.
summary The path attributes as text. other lists, in received order, the attributes that have no field of their own: atomic aggregate, aggregator, extended communities, AS4_PATH, only to customer, originator ID, cluster list, and unrecognized attributes.
attributes All path attributes, as received.

Rejected Routes

/api/routes/rejected returns, for each neighbor with rejected routes, the number of rejected routes for each reason and the 200 most recent rejected routes. To return the records for one neighbor, add ?peer=NAME.

[{
  "peer": "test-peer",
  "peer_addr": "127.0.0.1",
  "total": 1,
  "by_reason": { "own AS in path": 1 },
  "recent": [{
    "prefix": "198.51.100.0/24",
    "path_id": 0,
    "reason": "own AS in path",
    "as_path": [65001, 64500],
    "at_unix": 1791020702,
    "summary": {
      "origin": "IGP",
      "as_path": [65001, 64500],
      "next_hop": "10.0.0.2",
      "med": null,
      "local_pref": null,
      "communities": [],
      "large_communities": [],
      "other": []
    },
    "attributes": [
      { "Origin": 0 },
      { "AsPath": { "segments": [{ "ordered": true, "path": [65001, 64500] }] } },
      { "NextHop": "10.0.0.2" }
    ]
  }]
}]
Field Description
summary, attributes The path attributes of the rejected route, in the same format as for received routes. For a route rejected when RPKI data changed, the attributes as stored, including those added by the import policy.

Kernel

/api/kernel returns the state of kernel route installation:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "table": 254,
  "metric": 20,
  "synced": true,
  "installed": 0,
  "kept": 0,
  "unresolved": {},
  "refused": 0,
  "errors": 0,
  "last_error": null,
  "interfaces": [
    { "name": "eth0", "index": 2, "up": true,
      "addresses": ["192.168.5.15/24", "fe80::5055:55ff:fed4:2526/64"] }
  ]
}
Field Description
synced Whether the kernel routing table has been synchronized with the routing table since the daemon started.
installed Number of routes installed.
kept Number of routes from a previous run that are retained during startup.
unresolved Number of prefixes whose active route is not installed, by reason.
refused Number of prefixes whose active route the kernel rejected.
errors Number of requests that the kernel rejected.

Events

/api/events is a stream of server-sent events. Each event has the name bgp and contains a JSON object. The type field identifies the event, as listed in Table 2.

type Description
session_up A session was established. The peer field has the format of /api/peers.
session_down A session ended. Fields: peer_addr, peer_asn.
route_refresh_requested A neighbor sent a ROUTE-REFRESH message.
local_announced, local_withdrawn An originated route was advertised or withdrawn.
best_changed The best path for a prefix changed. The route field contains the new best path.
best_withdrawn A prefix no longer has a route.
lagged The client did not read events quickly enough and missed events on stream. Reload the corresponding table. The missed field gives the number of missed events for the sessions and local_routes streams; the best_routes stream omits it because the number is not known.

The following command displays the event stream:

curl -sN 127.0.0.1:8080/api/events