DigitalOcean API Reference for App Platform
Most App Platform API operations are centered around a few core object types which are defined here.
App Platform Reference
Validated on 16 Jun 2022 • Last edited on 17 Apr 2025
App Platform is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that allows developers to publish code directly to DigitalOcean servers without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
The DigitalOcean API
The DigitalOcean API lets you manage DigitalOcean resources programmatically using conventional HTTP requests. All the functionality available in the DigitalOcean Control Panel is also available through the API.
The endpoint for the App Platform API is https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/apps; the API documentation has details on how to send native HTTP requests that are properly formed to make API calls.
Alternatively, you can use an API wrapper for your desired programming language to integrate access to the API in your application’s codebase. This makes calls to the DigitalOcean API similar to calling functions from locally-installed libraries that your code is importing. You still need to create an API token with the control panel’s token generator and reference the token string in your code.
The DigitalOcean Command Line Client, doctl
doctl is a command-line interface for the DigitalOcean API and supports many of the same actions.
The commands for App Platform are inside the apps command space.
To create or update an app, you can pass in a YAML or JSON app specification to the create command, as in doctl apps create --spec <path-to-spec>.
doctl apps
The subcommands of doctl app manage your App Platform apps. For documentation on app specs, see the app spec reference.
Additional References
App Platform Buildpack References
Reference information for supported buildpacks on App Platform.
App Platform Dockerfile Build Reference
Reference for using Dockerfiles to build App Platform apps.
Reference for Dev Config YAML
Reference for the format of dev-config.yaml, a file that configures local App Platform builds using doctl
Reference for App Specification
Reference for the format of app configuration files for App Platform, also known as app specs.
App Platform Error Code Reference
Reference for error codes and their reasons in App Platform.