canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/cloudinary.com/cloudinary-admin-api

# Cloudinary Admin API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Cloudinary Admin API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Control media assets, folders, and product environment configuration through 11 administrative endpoints. List and inspect uploaded resources by type, organize assets into folder hierarchies, search folders by expression, and monitor account usage quotas including storage, bandwidth, and transformation credits.

## For AI agents

Administer Cloudinary media assets, folders, and account configuration. List resources by type, organize folder structures, and monitor storage and bandwidth usage quotas.

## Scope

Does not handle media upload, image transformations, or video transcoding - use for administrative resource listing, folder management, and usage monitoring only.

## Capabilities

- List uploaded media resources filtered by type (image, video, raw) with pagination and ordering
- Inspect individual resource metadata including format, dimensions, tags, and transformation history
- Organize assets into nested folder hierarchies with create, rename, and delete operations
- Search folders by expression to locate specific organizational structures
- Monitor account usage including storage consumed, bandwidth used, and transformation credits remaining
- Retrieve and update product environment configuration settings

## Use cases

### AI Agent Media Asset Auditing

AI agents audit media asset libraries stored in Cloudinary through Jentic. The agent searches for the operation by intent (e.g., 'list all images in Cloudinary'), receives the schema, and executes resource listing calls to identify unused, oversized, or untagged assets. Usage monitoring endpoints track whether the account is approaching storage or bandwidth limits before costs escalate.

Example prompt: List all image resources using GET /resources/image, then check account usage with GET /usage to verify storage is below 80% of the quota

### Media Folder Organization

Organize thousands of media assets into logical folder structures for teams and projects. Create nested folders, move assets between them, and search the folder tree by expression. The Admin API handles folder-level operations while individual asset uploads target specific folders via the Upload API. Folder search supports finding structures by partial name or path.

Example prompt: Create a new folder 'campaigns/2026-q2' using POST /folders/campaigns/2026-q2 and verify it exists with GET /folders

### Account Usage Monitoring and Alerts

Track real-time account consumption across storage, bandwidth, and transformation credits. The /usage endpoint returns current period metrics against plan limits, enabling automated alerts before overages trigger additional charges. Monitor derived resources, video processing minutes, and API call counts to forecast upcoming billing.

Example prompt: Retrieve current usage metrics from GET /usage and calculate the percentage of bandwidth quota consumed this billing period

### Resource Metadata Inspection

Retrieve detailed metadata for uploaded assets including format, dimensions, file size, creation date, tags, and applied transformations. Use this for quality assurance workflows that verify uploaded media meets size, format, or dimension requirements before publishing to production. Individual resource inspection provides full provenance and transformation history.

Example prompt: Get full metadata for resource 'hero-banner' of type image using GET /resources/image/hero-banner and verify dimensions exceed 1920x1080

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /resources/{resource_type} | List all resources of a given type (image, video, raw) |
| GET | /resources/{resource_type}/{public_id} | Get detailed metadata for a specific resource |
| DELETE | /resources/{resource_type}/{public_id} | Delete a specific resource by type and public ID |
| GET | /folders | List all root-level folders |
| POST | /folders/{folder} | Create a new folder at the specified path |
| GET | /folders/search | Search for folders by expression |
| GET | /usage | Get account usage statistics and quota consumption |
| GET | /config | Retrieve product environment configuration |

## Key resources

- **Resources** — List, inspect, and delete uploaded media assets filtered by type
- **Folders** — Create, list, search, rename, and delete organizational folders
- **Usage** — Monitor storage, bandwidth, transformations, and API call consumption
- **Config** — Retrieve and manage product environment configuration settings

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Cloudinary Admin API by hand means setting up basic auth with your API key and secret and resolving the per-account api.cloudinary.com/v1_1/{cloud_name} host yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Cloudinary Admin API from the API Directory, store the key and secret once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The Admin API works within one cloud fixed by the {cloud_name} host and reaches assets by parameters rather than one id pinned in the URL path, so scope the agent by the operations it needs, such as listing resources, reading folders, or checking usage. You choose that set, so a destructive operation like deleting a resource is only in reach if you include it.
- **Credential handling:** Your Cloudinary API key and secret are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected as the basic-auth header at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'list images in Cloudinary' or 'check account usage', and Jentic returns the matching Admin API operation with its input schema, resolving the cloud_name path parameter, so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Cloudinary Upload API** — Upload and transform media assets with on-ingest processing
- **Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage API** — Low-cost object storage without media-specific transformations
- **Google Cloud Storage** — General-purpose object storage with CDN integration

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Cloudinary Admin API?

Cloudinary does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Cloudinary Admin API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the Cloudinary Admin API use?

The Cloudinary Admin API uses HTTP Basic authentication where the username is your API Key and the password is your API Secret. All requests must be made over HTTPS. Through Jentic, these credentials are stored encrypted in your Jentic One instance - agents authenticate without exposing raw API secrets.

### Can I list all images in my Cloudinary account with this API?

Yes. The GET /resources/image endpoint returns all image resources with pagination support. Each response includes public IDs, formats, dimensions, creation dates, and tags. Use the max_results parameter (up to 500) and the next_cursor value for pagination through large libraries.

### What are the rate limits for the Cloudinary Admin API?

The Admin API is rate-limited to 500 calls per hour on free plans, scaling up with paid plans. The API returns rate limit headers (X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset) with each response so you can track consumption and throttle accordingly.

### How do I monitor my Cloudinary usage through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'check Cloudinary storage usage' to load the GET /usage operation schema. This endpoint returns current-period metrics for storage bytes, bandwidth consumed, transformation credits used, and API calls made - all against your plan limits. Install with pip install jentic.

### What is the difference between the Admin API and the Upload API?

The Admin API handles account-level operations: listing resources, managing folders, monitoring usage, and reading configuration. The Upload API handles uploading new assets with transformations applied on ingest. Use the Admin API for auditing and organization; use the Upload API for adding new content.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Cloudinary Admin API?

Yes. Because you self-host Jentic One, your own rules decide which Admin API operations the agent may call, so you can grant read-only access such as listing resources with GET /resources/{resource_type}, reading folders with GET /folders, and checking quotas with GET /usage while withholding anything else. A destructive operation like DELETE /resources/{resource_type}/{public_id} is only in reach if you explicitly include it in the set you allow. The API also stays within the single cloud fixed by the {cloud_name} host, and your stored API key and secret are injected at execution time rather than exposed to the agent.