coder/docs/admin/users/headless-auth.md

Headless Authentication

Note

Creating service accounts requires a Premium license.

Service accounts are headless user accounts that cannot use the web UI to log in to Coder. This is useful for creating accounts for automated systems, such as CI/CD pipelines or for users who only consume Coder via another client/API. Service accounts do not have passwords or associated email addresses.

You must have the User Admin role or above to create service accounts.

Create a service account

CLI

Use the --service-account flag to create a dedicated service account:

coder users create \
  --username="coder-bot" \
  --service-account

UI

Navigate to Deployment > Users > Create user, then select Service account as the login type.

Authenticate as a service account

To make API or CLI requests on behalf of the headless user, learn how to generate API tokens on behalf of a user.