API Endpoints

The Tech Strategy Tool exposes a RESTful API using ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs. All endpoints are prefixed with /api/ and use JSON (application/json) for request and response bodies.

Authentication

All endpoints except POST /api/auth/login require authentication via the techstrat_session cookie. Mutating requests (POST, PUT, DELETE) also require the X-CSRF-Token: 1 header.

See API Authentication for details.

Endpoint Reference

Authentication

Method	Route	Auth	Description
POST	/api/auth/login	None	Authenticate and create session
POST	/api/auth/logout	Authenticated	Destroy session and clear cookie
GET	/api/auth/me	Authenticated	Return current user info
POST	/api/auth/change-password	Authenticated	Change own password

POST /api/auth/login

Authenticates a user and creates a session cookie.

Request:

{
  "username": "editor",
  "password": "editor"
}

Response (200 — success):

{
  "success": true,
  "userId": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "username": "editor",
  "role": "editor",
  "error": null
}

Response (200 — failure):

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Too many failed login attempts. Try again later."
}

GET /api/auth/me

Returns the currently authenticated user’s information.

Response (200):

{
  "success": true,
  "userId": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "username": "editor",
  "role": "editor",
  "error": null
}

Response (401): Not authenticated.

POST /api/auth/change-password

Request:

{
  "currentPassword": "oldpassword",
  "newPassword": "newpassword"
}

New password must be 8-128 characters.

Response (200): Password changed successfully. Response (400): New password too short or too long.

---

Teams

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/teams	ViewerOrAbove	List all teams

GET /api/teams

Returns all teams with basic info (no nested principles/objectives).

Response (200):

[
  {
    "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "name": "Platform Team",
    "color": "#3498db"
  }
]

---

Principles

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/teams/{teamId}/principles	ViewerOrAbove	Get all principles for a team
GET	/api/principles/{principleId}	ViewerOrAbove	Get a single principle

GET /api/teams/{teamId}/principles

Returns the principles view for a team, including all principles with their details.

GET /api/principles/{principleId}

Returns a single principle by ID.

---

Objectives

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/teams/{teamId}/objectives	ViewerOrAbove	Get all objectives for a team
GET	/api/objectives/{objectiveId}	ViewerOrAbove	Get a single objective

GET /api/teams/{teamId}/objectives

Returns the objectives view for a team, including objectives with their linked principles, initiatives, groups, and progress data.

GET /api/objectives/{objectiveId}

Returns a single objective by ID, including its initiatives and linked principles.

---

Events

Method	Route	Auth	Description
POST	/api/events	EditorOrAbove	Submit an event

This is the primary write endpoint. All state changes go through event submission.

POST /api/events

Request (SubmitEventRequest):

{
  "eventType": "update_name",
  "targetId": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "targetType": "principle",
  "data": {
    "name": "API-First Design"
  },
  "lastSeenSequence": 42
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
eventType	string	Yes	One of the recognized event types
targetId	GUID	No	Entity being acted on (parent entity for create_entity, null for create_entity with teams)
targetType	string	Conditional	Required for create_entity, delete_entity, update_name, update_description. Values: "Team", "Group", "Principle", "Objective", "Initiative"
data	object	Yes	Key-value pairs specific to the event type
lastSeenSequence	long	No	For conflict detection on field edits

Response (200) — Applied (SubmitEventResponse):

{
  "sequenceNumber": 43,
  "status": "applied",
  "rejectionReason": null,
  "previousValue": "Old Title",
  "conflictingServerValue": null
}

previousValue contains the field’s value before the change (for history). It is only populated on applied field-edit events.

Response (200) — Rejected (conflict):

{
  "sequenceNumber": 43,
  "status": "rejected",
  "rejectionReason": "Conflict: field was modified since your last read",
  "previousValue": null,
  "conflictingServerValue": "Current Server Value"
}

conflictingServerValue contains the current server value that the client is out of sync with. It is only populated on conflict rejections.

Response (200) — No Change:

When the submitted value is identical to the current value (trimmed), the processor detects a no-op. No event is persisted and no SSE notification is broadcast.

{
  "sequenceNumber": 0,
  "status": "no_change",
  "rejectionReason": null,
  "previousValue": null,
  "conflictingServerValue": null
}

Status values: "applied", "no_change" (no-ops), "rejected" (see rejectionReason for details).

previousValue and conflictingServerValue are mutually exclusive

On applied events, previousValue holds the value before the change and conflictingServerValue is null. On conflict rejections, conflictingServerValue holds the current server value and previousValue is null. Both are null for non-field events, no-ops, and non-conflict rejections.

Response (400) — Invalid envelope:

Returned when the request is structurally invalid. These are programmer errors that the legitimate UI never triggers.

• Empty or missing eventType
• Unrecognized eventType (not in EventTypes.All)
• Missing targetId when required (all types except create_entity, restore_history, and import_team)
• Missing targetType for generic events (create_entity, delete_entity, update_name, update_description)

Admin-only events

Team-scoped events (update_team_color, restore_history, import_team) and generic entity events with targetType: "Team" (create_entity, delete_entity, update_name) require the admin role. The endpoint returns 403 for non-admin users attempting these events.

See Event Types for the complete catalog of event types and their data fields.

---

History

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/history/entity/{entityId}	ViewerOrAbove	Get event history for a specific entity
GET	/api/history/all	AdminOnly	Paginated global event log

GET /api/history/entity/{entityId}

Returns all events that affected the given entity, using the history_associations table. This includes create events (where TargetId is the parent, not the entity itself) and cascaded effects (e.g., delete_entity for a principle affecting objectives). Falls back to TargetId-based filtering for pre-migration data with no associations.

GET /api/history/all

Returns paginated global event log. Query parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
from	int	(latest)	Starting sequence number
limit	int	100	Number of events to return (max 500)

Response: Array of HistoryEntryDto:

[
  {
    "sequenceNumber": 3,
    "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:25:00Z",
    "actorName": "editor",
    "eventType": "create_entity",
    "status": "applied",
    "description": "Created principle 'Security First'",
    "fieldName": null,
    "oldValue": null,
    "newValue": null,
    "isTransitive": false,
    "canReapply": true
  },
  {
    "sequenceNumber": 5,
    "timestamp": "2026-01-15T10:30:00Z",
    "actorName": "editor",
    "eventType": "update_name",
    "status": "applied",
    "description": "Changed principle name to 'Security First v2'",
    "fieldName": null,
    "oldValue": "Security First",
    "newValue": "Security First v2",
    "isTransitive": false,
    "canReapply": true
  }
]

• isTransitive: true for cascaded effects (e.g., objective affected by principle deletion), false for direct actions
• oldValue/newValue: populated for field edits when a previous event exists for the same field (via previous_sequence in the association)
• canReapply: false for transitive entries and rejected events

---

Admin

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/admin/users	AdminOnly	List all users
POST	/api/admin/users	AdminOnly	Create a user
PUT	/api/admin/users/{userId}/role	AdminOnly	Update user role
DELETE	/api/admin/users/{userId}	AdminOnly	Delete user
POST	/api/admin/rebuild-history	AdminOnly	Rebuild all history associations and checkpoints

GET /api/admin/users

Response (200): Array of UserDto:

[
  {
    "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "username": "admin",
    "role": "admin",
    "createdAt": "2026-01-15T10:30:00Z"
  }
]

POST /api/admin/users

Request (CreateUserRequest):

{
  "username": "newuser",
  "password": "securepassword",
  "role": "editor"
}

Field	Constraints
username	Required, max 50 characters
password	Required, 8-128 characters
role	Required, must be viewer, editor, or admin

Response (201): UserDto of the created user. Response (400): Validation failure (empty username, short password, invalid role). Response (409): Username already exists.

PUT /api/admin/users/{userId}/role

Request:

{
  "role": "admin"
}

Role must be viewer, editor, or admin. Returns 400 for unrecognized roles.

Self-modification

The API rejects attempts to delete your own account or change your own role with a 400 response.

POST /api/admin/rebuild-history

Rebuilds all history associations and checkpoints by replaying the entire event stream. During rebuild, the live system continues processing events but temporarily suspends association persistence and checkpoint saves.

Response (200):

{
  "eventsProcessed": 547,
  "checkpointsSaved": 6,
  "associationsSaved": 892
}

Response (409): A rebuild is already in progress.

---

SSE

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/sse	ViewerOrAbove	Server-Sent Events stream

See Real-Time Updates (SSE) for the SSE protocol and wire format.

---

Export & Import

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/api/teams/{teamId}/export	ViewerOrAbove	Export team strategy as PPTX
GET	/api/teams/{teamId}/export/json	AdminOnly	Export team as JSON (for import)
POST	/api/teams/import	AdminOnly	Import team from JSON export

GET /api/teams/{teamId}/export returns a PowerPoint file (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation) containing the team’s principles and objectives.

GET /api/teams/{teamId}/export/json returns a TeamExportDto JSON document capturing the team’s state as an ordered sequence of events. This format is designed for import.

POST /api/teams/import accepts a TeamExportDto body and replays it as a new team with freshly generated IDs. Returns ImportResultDto:

{
  "newTeamId": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "newTeamName": "Platform Team",
  "eventsImported": 42
}

Utility

Method	Route	Auth	Description
GET	/	None	Redirects to /strategy/
GET	/health	None	Health check endpoint

GET /health

Returns a simple health check response:

{
  "status": "healthy"
}

---

Error Responses

Status Code	Meaning
400	Bad request (validation error, self-modification attempt)
401	Not authenticated
403	Insufficient permissions or missing CSRF token
404	Entity not found
500	Internal server error

All error responses include a JSON body with a message field describing the error.

CSRF Protection

All mutating requests (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) must include the header:

X-CSRF-Token: 1

The value is always 1 — this is a simple CSRF mitigation that verifies the request was made from JavaScript (browsers cannot set custom headers on cross-origin form submissions). Missing this header results in a 403 response.