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Certificates

Overview​

Certificates are first-class assets in TokenTimer. Cert-category tokens appear in the Tokens list, the Control Center (the summary view at the top of the dashboard showing expiry counts and certificate operations status), and token detail views alongside your other expiring credentials.

CertOps (certificate operations) is TokenTimer's optional layer for teams that manage certificate renewals themselves. If you only want to be alerted before certificates expire, you do not need CertOps: endpoint SSL monitoring, available on all plans, covers that. CertOps adds a managed inventory and renewal-job tracking on the Pro and Team plans.

CertOps enriches cert-category tokens with key locality (where the private key lives, always on your infrastructure, never in TokenTimer), issuer, source, and observed deployment and rotation history. You get a single inventory tied to the token surfaces you already use, not a separate certificate console.

An executor is any process on your side (a CI job, a cert-manager hook, or a renewal script) that does certificate work and reports it to TokenTimer. See Certificate automation.

Zero private-key custody​

TokenTimer control plane never stores, receives, or generates private keys; customer-side agents may generate keys locally. The platform stores only public certificate material and external key references. Uploads or API payloads that contain private key material are rejected with HTTP 422 (PRIVATE_KEY_MATERIAL_REJECTED).

  • Public material: PEM certificates, subject, issuer, serial, fingerprint, and expiry metadata.
  • Key references: where a key lives (for example an external vault or host path), not the key itself.
  • Observations: what the worker saw served at a monitored HTTPS endpoint.

Plan availability​

On TokenTimer Cloud, certificate operations through CertOps are available on the Pro and Team plans. See Plan limits.

  • Free: 0 managed certificate slots; CertOps write operations are not available. Public SSL endpoint monitoring (adding HTTPS endpoints and tracking expiry via ssl_cert tokens) is available on all plans.
  • Pro: full CertOps inventory, import, and API access with 25 active managed certificate slots.
  • Team: same CertOps capabilities with 250 active managed certificate slots.
info

Endpoint SSL monitoring does not require a paid plan. Only CertOps inventory operations are plan-gated.

Managed certificate inventory​

Each managed certificate is the authoritative lifecycle record for one certificate identity in a workspace. It links one-to-one with a cert-category token: the token is what you see in lists and alerts; the managed certificate holds CertOps fields and observation history.

Lifecycle statuses​

  • discovered: first seen, not yet confirmed active in inventory.
  • active: tracked and within its validity window.
  • renewing: a newer instance was observed while the prior one is still valid.
  • expiring: within the configured expiry threshold.
  • expired: past its expiry (notAfter) date.
  • revoked: retired because the certificate was revoked or must no longer be trusted.
  • decommissioned: retired because the certificate was intentionally taken out of service.

There is no separate CertOps inventory screen. Managed certificates are visible through the enriched Tokens list and token detail CertOps panel, including key locality, managed status, and filters for retired certificates.

Importing certificates​

Import a public certificate through the existing Import tokens flow (public PEM card when CertOps is enabled) or through the CertOps API. This path is for certificates you already hold or that are not tied to an endpoint monitor.

  • Public material only: supply a PEM-encoded certificate. Private keys are rejected with HTTP 422.
  • Idempotent on fingerprint: importing the same certificate again (same SHA-256 fingerprint) returns the existing managed certificate instead of creating a duplicate.
  • Token linkage: a cert-category token is created or updated alongside the managed certificate.
  • Quota: each new active managed certificate counts against your plan slot limit (see Plans and limits).
warning

Never paste or upload a private key. TokenTimer cannot store key material and will reject the request.

Endpoint monitor bridge​

When CertOps is enabled, endpoint SSL monitoring feeds the managed certificate inventory. The worker observes the public certificate served at a monitored HTTPS endpoint or domain, then records that observation into CertOps when the monitor has a linked token.

How it works​

  • Token first: the bridge runs only when the monitor has a linked token_id (including auto-created ssl_cert tokens). No orphan managed certificates are created.
  • One managed certificate per monitor: each endpoint monitor maps to exactly one managed certificate, keyed by monitor identity.
  • Rotation in place: when the served certificate changes at the same URL, the existing managed certificate is updated (new fingerprint, serial, expiry) and the linked token metadata is refreshed for alerts.
  • Observer only: the monitor watches what is deployed and never modifies your endpoints. Deployment and renewal happen through CertOps automation (agents, cert-manager, or your own executors), not through monitors.

For certificates without a URL to observe, use import instead. See also Endpoint & SSL monitoring for monitor setup.

Certificate history​

Each observation of a managed certificate at a target is stored as a certificate instance. Instances form a timeline of what was seen, where, and when.

  • Re-observation refreshes: seeing the same fingerprint again updates the existing instance (last seen timestamp, deployment reference).
  • New fingerprint appends: a rotation at the same monitor creates a new instance under the same managed certificate, preserving rotation history.
  • Token detail: the CertOps panel on token detail shows deployment history and instance fields such as observed subject, issuer, serial, and fingerprint.
  • API: list instances via GET .../certificates/{certId}/instances (public observation fields only).

Instance history helps you answer when a certificate rotated, what was previously served, and whether observations are still current.

Renewals and approvals​

Inventory tracks what is deployed; renewing a certificate is a job, not an inventory edit. See Certificate Automation for renewal scheduling, manual renew vs bulk renew, and job status transitions (including the pending_approval state a job sits in while awaiting sign-off). See Approval gates and Certificate renewal failures for the approval and alerting detail.

Plans and limits​

Managed certificate slots are a per-workspace quota on TokenTimer Cloud:

  • Free: 0 active managed certificate slots.
  • Pro: 25 active managed certificate slots.
  • Team: 250 active managed certificate slots.

What counts toward the limit​

The limit counts only active managed certificates. Statuses such as discovered, active, renewing, expiring, and expired all consume a slot. Retiring a certificate to revoked or decommissioned frees its slot, so retired certificates do not count against your quota.

When you reach the limit, registering or importing a new managed certificate is blocked until you move to a plan with more slots or retire an existing certificate. See Plan limits and Pricing.

info

Endpoint SSL monitoring and ssl_cert tokens are not gated by managed certificate slots. Only CertOps inventory operations (import, API registration, monitor bridge writes) consume slots.

Retiring certificates​

Removing a tracked certificate is retire-first, never a silent delete. This preserves audit history and frees your managed certificate slot.

  • Retire action: call POST .../certificates/{certId}/retire with reason revoked or decommissioned.
  • Status mirror: the linked cert-category token receives a matching lifecycle status.
  • Preserved data: the managed certificate, all certificate instances, and observation metadata remain queryable for history.
  • Slot freed: revoked and decommissioned certificates no longer count toward your active slot quota.
  • No hard delete: a managed-backed certificate cannot be hard-deleted from the token surface. Use retire instead.

Choose revoked when the certificate was revoked or must not be trusted. Choose decommissioned when the certificate was intentionally removed from service but was not necessarily revoked by a CA.

API reference​

CertOps endpoints are workspace-scoped under /api/v1/workspaces/{id}/certops. On the Free plan these return a plan-required response (HTTP 402 PLAN_FEATURE_REQUIRED). See the API reference for authentication and pagination.

  • GET /certificates — list managed certificates in the workspace (limit, offset).
  • POST /certificates — register a public certificate (PEM body; rejects private keys with 422).
  • GET /certificates/{certId} — fetch one managed certificate by ID.
  • GET /certificates/{certId}/instances — list observation instances (rotation history).
  • POST /certificates/{certId}/retire — retire with revoked or decommissioned.
  • POST /imports — bulk import public certificates (same validation and quota rules).

Example​

# List managed certificates (Pro or Team workspace)
curl -s -b cookies.txt \
  'https://tokentimer.ch/api/v1/workspaces/WORKSPACE_ID/certops/certificates?limit=20&offset=0' | jq '.'

# Import a public PEM certificate
curl -s -b cookies.txt -X POST \
  'https://tokentimer.ch/api/v1/workspaces/WORKSPACE_ID/certops/certificates' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"pem":"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n...\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----"}'