API Management

Introduction

Azure API Management (APIM) is a fully managed service for publishing, securing, and analyzing APIs at scale. It acts as a gateway between clients and backend services, providing features such as rate limiting, policy enforcement, authentication, and developer portal integration. APIM is commonly used to expose internal services as managed APIs, implement API versioning, and monitor API usage across organizations. For more information, see What is Azure API Management?.

LocalStack for Azure provides a local environment for building and testing applications that make use of Azure API Management. The supported APIs are available on our API Coverage section, which provides information on the extent of API Management’s integration with LocalStack.

Getting started

This guide walks you through creating an API Management service, adding an API, and registering a backend.

Launch LocalStack using your preferred method. For more information, see Introduction to LocalStack for Azure. Once the container is running, enable Azure CLI interception by running:

azlocal start-interception

This command points the az CLI away from the public Azure management REST API and toward the LocalStack for Azure emulator API. To revert this configuration, run:

azlocal stop-interception

This reconfigures the az CLI to send commands to the official Azure management REST API.

Create a resource group

Create a resource group to hold all resources created in this guide:

az group create --name rg-apim-demo --location westeurope

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-apim-demo",
  "location": "eastus",
  "name": "rg-apim-demo",
  "properties": { "provisioningState": "Succeeded" },
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}

Create an API Management service instance

Create an API Management instance in the Consumption tier:

az apim create \
  --name my-apim \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --location westeurope \
  --sku-name Consumption \
  --publisher-email admin@example.com \
  --publisher-name "My Organization"

Output

{
  "gatewayUrl": "https://my-apim.azure-api.net",
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-apim-demo/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/my-apim",
  "location": "East US",
  "name": "my-apim",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "publisherEmail": "admin@example.com",
  "publisherName": "My Organization",
  "resourceGroup": "rg-apim-demo",
  "sku": { "capacity": 0, "name": "Consumption" },
  "type": "Microsoft.ApiManagement/service",
  ...
}

Show and list services

Retrieve the details of the service instance and list all instances in the resource group:

az apim show --name my-apim --resource-group rg-apim-demo

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-apim-demo/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/my-apim",
  "location": "East US",
  "name": "my-apim",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "publisherEmail": "admin@example.com",
  "publisherName": "My Organization",
  "resourceGroup": "rg-apim-demo",
  "sku": { "capacity": 0, "name": "Consumption" },
  "type": "Microsoft.ApiManagement/service"
...
}

Then list all API Management services in the resource group:

az apim list --resource-group rg-apim-demo

Output

[
  {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-apim-demo/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/my-apim",
    "name": "my-apim",
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "resourceGroup": "rg-apim-demo",
    "sku": { "capacity": 0, "name": "Consumption" },
    "type": "Microsoft.ApiManagement/service"
  }
]

Check service name availability

Check whether the service name is globally available before creating:

az apim check-name --name my-apim

Output

{
  "message": "",
  "nameAvailable": true,
  "reason": "Valid"
}

Create and inspect an API

Create an API in API Management:

az apim api create \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --service-name my-apim \
  --api-id orders-api \
  --path orders \
  --display-name "Orders API" \
  --protocols https

Output

{
  "displayName": "Orders API",
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-apim-demo/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/my-apim/apis/orders-api",
  "name": "orders-api",
  "path": "orders",
  "protocols": [
    "https"
  ],
  "subscriptionRequired": true,
  ...
}

Get the API:

az apim api show \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --service-name my-apim \
  --api-id orders-api

Output

{
  "displayName": "Orders API",
  "name": "orders-api",
  "path": "orders",
  "protocols": [
    "https"
  ],
  ...
}

Create and update an API operation

Create an operation on the API:

az apim api operation create \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --service-name my-apim \
  --api-id orders-api \
  --operation-id get-orders \
  --display-name "Get orders" \
  --method GET \
  --url-template "/orders"

Output

{
  "displayName": "Get orders",
  "method": "GET",
  "name": "get-orders",
  "type": "Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/apis/operations",
  "urlTemplate": "/orders",
  ...
}

Update the operation and verify the change:

az apim api operation update \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --service-name my-apim \
  --api-id orders-api \
  --operation-id get-orders \
  --set displayName="Get all orders"

az apim api operation show \
  --resource-group rg-apim-demo \
  --service-name my-apim \
  --api-id orders-api \
  --operation-id get-orders

Output

{
  "displayName": "Get all orders",
  "method": "GET",
  "name": "get-orders",
  "urlTemplate": "/orders",
  ...
}

Features

• Full CRUD lifecycle: Create, read, update, and delete APIM service instances.
• API management: Create, read, and delete API definitions within a service.
• API operations: Register and retrieve API operation definitions.
• Backend management: Define and manage backend service configurations.
• API gateway management: Create and manage self-hosted API gateways.
• API policies: Attach XML policy documents to APIs (stored but not evaluated).
• Name availability check: Validate service name uniqueness via the checkNameAvailability action.
• Service listing: List all APIM services in a subscription or resource group.

Limitations

• No gateway proxy: Incoming API calls are not proxied through LocalStack. The APIM gateway does not process requests, apply policies, or forward traffic to backends.
• No policy evaluation: Inbound, outbound, and error policies are stored in the ARM model but are not executed.
• No developer portal: The APIM developer portal and its OAuth/subscription flows are not emulated.
• No subscription keys: API subscriptions and key-based authentication are not enforced.
• No rate limiting or quotas: Throttling, quota, and cache policies have no effect.
• Consumption plan only for creation: SKU differences between Developer, Basic, Standard, Premium, and Consumption tiers are not emulated.

Samples

Explore end-to-end examples in the LocalStack for Azure Samples repository.

API Coverage

Operation ▲	Implemented ▼

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