---
# source: blog-content: posts/en/how-to-authenticate-with-the-vsphere-supervisor-api.md
# route:  /en/insights/how-to-authenticate-with-the-vsphere-supervisor-api/
title: Authenticate with the vSphere Supervisor API
date: 2026-07-29
author: matthias-grasmueck
locale: en
summary: Have you always wondered how to log in directly to the vSphere Supervisor API to communicate directly with the Kubernetes API without having to rely on kubectl-vsphere or vcf-cli command line tool?
capabilities: [containers]
vendors: [vmware]
hero: /blog-assets/how-to-authenticate-with-the-vsphere-supervisor-api/hero.webp
legacySlug: how-to-authenticate-with-the-vsphere-supervisor-api
migrated: 2026-08-24
draft: false
---

Have you always wondered how to log in directly to the **vSphere Supervisor API** to communicate directly with the Kubernetes API without having to rely on **kubectl-vsphere** or **vcf-cli** command line tool?

This short example shows quite simply how you can easily log in to the Supervisor API and, for example, retrieve the vSphere namespaces:

```bash
# Get the JSON Web Token (JWT)
TOKEN=$(curl -sk -u "USER@DOMAIN" \
-X POST https://SUPERVISOR_FQDN_OR_IP/wcp/login | jq -r '.session_id')

# Query all vSphere Namespaces
curl -k -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" -X GET https://SUPERVISOR_FQDN_OR_IP/api/v1/namespaces | jq -r '.items[].metadata.name'

# Output
default
kube-node-lease
kube-public
kube-state-metrics-139ce
kube-system
svc-argocd
svc-argocd-service-3srmt
svc-auto-attach-1hnu0
svc-cci-ns-xk907
svc-configuration-tbe79
svc-consumption-operator-63v75
svc-contour-m8mn1
svc-harbor-jpft6
svc-metrics-aggregator-rs4er
svc-pais-lyk5h
svc-secret-store-6rqli
svc-supervisor-management-proxy-l4g5n
svc-tkg-gf8p0
svc-tmc-c9
svc-velero-od4zi
svc-vks-cluster-manager-service-3873a
vmware-system-ako
vmware-system-appplatform-operator-system
vmware-system-cert-manager
vmware-system-csi
vmware-system-imageregistry
vmware-system-kubeimage
vmware-system-logging
vmware-system-mgmt-proxy
vmware-system-mobility-operator
vmware-system-monitoring
vmware-system-netop
vmware-system-network-operations
vmware-system-nsop
vmware-system-nsx
vmware-system-pinniped
vmware-system-supervisor-services
vmware-system-supervisor-services-vpc
vmware-system-vks-public
vmware-system-vmop
vmware-system-workload-cli
vmware-system-zoneop
```

You can also use this token directly and embed it in a kubeconfig file so that you can use the kubectl CLI as well:

```yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Config
clusters:
- cluster:
    insecure-skip-tls-verify: true
    server: https://SUPERVISOR_IP:443
  name: vcf-mgmt-sn91:SUPERVISOR_IP
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: vcf-mgmt-sn91:SUPERVISOR_IP
    user: vcf-mgmt-sn91:USER@DOMAIN@10.24.68.5
  name: vcf-mgmt-sn91
current-context: vcf-mgmt-sn91
users:
- name: vcf-mgmt-sn91:USER@DOMAIN@SUPERVISOR_IP
  user:
    token: REDACTED_JWT
```

Many thanks to **Will Arroyo** ([github.com/warroyo](https://github.com/warroyo/supervisor-login-examples)) for his support and contribution.

A big thank you also goes to **Louis Baumann** ([github.com/soultecag](https://github.com/soultecag/vks-k8s-auth)), who provided us with a simple Go client that allows us to log in to a vSphere Supervisor and create a Kubernetes client or a kubeconfig file, either for the Supervisor cluster itself or for one of its VKS guest clusters.