Student Invite API

This is a Flask web service that allows students to request temporary access to an IBM Cloud PowerVS account.
When a student calls the /invite endpoint with their email address, the service automatically:

• Invites the user to the IBM Cloud account.
• Adds them to my IBM Cloud access group.
• Creates a time-limited IAM policy (default: 7 days) that restricts their access to the target resource group.

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ (for local runs)
• IBM Cloud account with IAM admin rights
• An IBM API key with authority to invite users and assign IAM policies
• A configured IBM Code Engine project if deploying serverless

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Configuration

The app expects several environment variables (set these in your Code Engine project or locally with a .env file):

• IBM_API_KEY – IBM Cloud API key
• ACCOUNT_ID – Your IBM Cloud account ID
• RESOURCE_GROUP_ID – ID of the Resource Group students should see
• ACCESS_GROUP_ID – Access Group name (For example, QZD35G-student-access I've hardcoded)
• SITE_TOKEN – Shared secret token to restrict who can call the endpoint

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How to run locally

Clone this repo and install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a .env file with your environment variables:

IBM_API_KEY=your-ibm-api-key
ACCOUNT_ID=your-account-id
RESOURCE_GROUP_ID=your-resource-group-id
ACCESS_GROUP_ID=your-access-group-id
SITE_TOKEN=your-secret-token

Run the app:

python app.py

It will listen on http://localhost:8080.

Test with curl:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/invite \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-SITE-TOKEN: <your-site-token>" \
  -d '{"email":"student@example.com"}'