---
name: cloudant-gen2-connecting
title: Connecting
description: '- Programmatically accessing IBM Cloudant by using curl or client libraries'
last-updated: 2026-06-09
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloudant-gen2?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Connecting
{: #connecting}

IBM® Cloudant® for IBM Cloud® is accessed through an HTTP API. You can see the different parts that you use to connect to IBM Cloudant in the following list:
- Endpoints
- Service keys
- Authentication
- Accessing the IBM Cloudant Dashboard
- Programmatically accessing IBM Cloudant by using [curl](https://curl.haxx.se/){: external} or client libraries
{: shortdesc}

## Endpoints
{: #endpoints}

IBM Cloudant is accessed through HTTP API endpoints. The endpoints for an instance are
shown in both the URL field of the Service Credentials that are generated for the instance, and in **Account** > **Settings** of the
IBM Cloudant Dashboard.

All IBM Cloudant HTTP endpoints must be accessed over TLS and prefaced by `https://`.

The publicly facing external endpoint is shown in the following example:

`00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000.abc.cloudant.eu-de.dataservices.appdomain.cloud`

- `00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000` is the unique identifier for the instance.
- `abc` is the ingress domain for this instance in which the instance is deployed. It will be a combination of three letters.
- `cloudant` is the service name.
- `eu-de` is the data center in which the instance is deployed.
- `dataservices.appdomain.cloud` is the domain for the IBM's data services.

Private (internal) endpoints are availble on all instances. An example IBM Cloud Private (internal) network endpoint is shown in the following example:

`00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000.private.abc.cloudant.eu-de.dataservices.appdomain.cloud`

Note the word `private` in the URL.
{: note}


## Service credentials
{: #service-credentials-con}

To generate service credentials for IBM Cloudant by using the IBM Cloud
Dashboard, see the [Creating an IBM Cloudant instance on IBM Cloud](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloudant-gen2?topic=cloudant-gen2-getting-started-with-cloudant&format=markdown) tutorial. To generate service credentials from
the IBM Cloud CLI, see [Creating an instance with CLI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloudant-gen2?topic=cloudant-gen2-creating-an-ibm-cloudant-instance-on-ibm-cloud-by-using-the-ibm-cloud-cli&format=markdown#creating-an-ibm-cloudant-instance-on-ibm-cloud-by-using-the-ibm-cloud-cli).

The following example shows service credentials for an IBM Cloudant instance:

```json
{
    "guid": "e46688a4-7155-4ee3-92ed-d64baa0f6e17",
    "id": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:cloudant-cdp-dev:us-east:a/92a3346cfc4a:00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000:resource-key:e46688a4-7155-4ee3-92ed-d64baa0f6e17",
    "url": "/v2/resource_keys/e46688a4-7155-4ee3-92ed-d64baa0f6e17",
    "created_at": "2026-06-01T13:10:13.722032774Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-06-01T13:10:13.722032774Z",
    "deleted_at": null,
    "name": "test-key",
    "account_id": "92a3346cfc4a",
    "resource_group_id": "...",
    "source_crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:cloudant-cdp-dev:us-east:a/92a3346cfc4a:00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000::",
    "state": "active",
    "credentials": {
        "apikey": "...",
        "iam_apikey_description": "Auto-generated for key crn:v1:bluemix:public:cloudant-cdp-dev:us-east:a/REDACTED:00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000:resource-key:e46688a4-7155-4ee3-92ed-d64baa0f6e17",
        "iam_apikey_id": "ApiKey-82b20656-9c5e-4c5c-9418-45962fc96c92",
        "iam_apikey_name": "test-key",
        "iam_role_crn": "...",
        "iam_serviceid_crn": "...",
        "url": "https://00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000.abc.cloudant.eu-de.dataservices.appdomain.cloud",
        "vpe_url": "https://00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000.private.abc.cloudant.eu-de.dataservices.appdomain.cloud"
    },
    "iam_compatible": true,
    "onetime_credentials": false,
    "resource_instance_url": "/v2/resource_instances/00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000",
    "crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:cloudant-cdp-dev:us-east:a/92a3346cfc4a:00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000:resource-key:e46688a4-7155-4ee3-92ed-d64baa0f6e17"
}
```
{: codeblock}

The service credentials include the following fields:

`apikey`
:  The IAM API key.

`iam_apikey_description`
:  Description of the IAM API key.

`iam_apikey_name`
:  ID of the IAM API key.

`iam_role_crn`
:  The IAM role that the IAM API key has.

`iam_serviceid_crn`
:  The CRN of the service ID.


## IBM Cloudant Dashboard
{: #ibm-cloudant-dashboard}

You can open the IBM Cloudant Dashboard for your instance by going to the Manage tab of
the IBM Cloud Dashboard instance details page. You can use either `Launch` or `Launch Cloudant Dashboard` to open the dashboard in a new browser tab. You can do the following tasks by using the IBM Cloudant Dashboard:

- Perform create, retrieve, update, delete on IBM Cloudant databases, documents, and indexes.
- Set up and view replication jobs.
- View active tasks.

## Programmatic access
{: #programmatic-access}

### Client libraries
{: #client-libraries-overview}

IBM Cloudant has official, supported client libraries for Java™, Node.js, Python, Swift, Go, and Mobile. For more information, see the [client libraries documentation](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloudant-gen2?topic=cloudant-gen2-client-libraries&format=markdown#client-libraries) to access the libraries, and see examples for connecting to an IBM Cloudant
instance from each.