Chainguard Libraries Access
Access to Chainguard Libraries is consistent across all permissions and accounts of the Chainguard platform.
If you are not a Chainguard user yet, a new Chainguard account must be created and configured for access to Chainguard Libraries.
If you are already a Chainguard user, the Chainguard account owner in your organization can grant access to Chainguard Libraries.
In both cases, confirm the name of the organization so you can use it with the
--parent
parameter to specify the organization.
Initial authentication
Once your user account is created and access is confirmed, install the
Chainguard Control chainctl
command line
tool and login to your
account:
chainctl auth login
After authentication in a browser window, a successful login displays a message and a token:
Successfully exchanged token.
Valid! Id: 8a4141a........7d9904d98c
Pull token for libraries
Retrieve a new authentication token for the Chainguard Libraries for Java with the chainctl auth pull-token command:
chainctl auth pull-token --library-ecosystem=java --parent=example --ttl=8670h
--library-ecosystem=java
: retrieve the token for use with Chainguard Libraries for Java--parent=example
: specify the parent organization for your account as provided when requesting access to Chainguard Libraries for Java and the replaceexample
.--ttl=8670d
: set the duration for the validity of the token, defaults to720h
(equivalent to 30 days), maximum valid value is8760d
(equivalent to 365 days), valid unit strings range from nanoseconds to hours and arens
,us
,ms
,s
,m
, andh
.
When omitting the parent parameter, potentially a list of organizations is
displayed. Use the arrow keys to navigate the selection displayed after the
question “With which location is the pull token associated?” and select the
organization that has the entitlement to access Chainguard Libraries for Java.
Press /
to filter the list.
chainctl
returns a username and password suitable for basic authentication in
the response:
Username: 45a.....424eb0
Password: eyJhbGciO..........WF0IjoxN
The returned username and password combination is a new credential set in the organization that is independent of the account used to create and retrieve the credential set. It is therefore suitable for use in any service application, such as a repository manager or a build tool that is not tied to a specific user.
To use this pull token in another environment, supply the following for username and password valid for basic authentication. Note that the actual returned values are much longer.
Use the credentials for manual testing in a browser or with a script if you know the URL for a specific library artifact, for example a Java library.
Use environment variables
Using environment variables for username and password is more secure than hardcoding the values in configuration files. In addition, you can use the same configuration and files for all users to simplify setup and reduce errors.
Use the env
environment output option to create a snippet for a new token
suitable for integration in a script.
$ chainctl auth pull-token --output env --library-ecosystem=java --parent=example
export CHAINGUARD_JAVA_IDENTITY_ID=45a.....424eb0
export CHAINGUARD_JAVA_TOKEN=eeyJhbGciO..........WF0IjoxN
Combine the call with eval
to populate the environment variables directly by
calling chainctl
:
eval $(chainctl auth pull-token --output env --library-ecosystem=java --parent=example)
Running this command as part of a login script or some other automation allows your organization to replace actual username and password values in your build tool configuration with environment variable placeholders:
Verify entitlement
You can verify entitlements for your organization example
with the following
command:
chainctl libraries entitlements list --parent=example
The output must include the Java ecosystem in the table:
Ecosystem Library Entitlements for chainguard.edu (45a0...764595)
ID | ECOSYSTEM
------------------------------------------------------------+------------
45a....................................................e1 | JAVA
Contact your Chainguard account owner for confirmation or adjustments if necessary.
Last updated: 2025-04-07 15:17