> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.squarecloud.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Get Certificate

> Get the certificate of a database hosted on Square Cloud.

<ParamField header="Authorization" type="string" placeholder="API Key" required>
  The API key for your account. You can find this in your [account settings](https://squarecloud.app/en/account/security).
</ParamField>

Returns the TLS certificate the database uses for encrypted connections, base64-encoded so it can be written straight to a `.pem` file. Managed MongoDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases each ship with their own certificate; check your driver's TLS options to see whether it needs one.

The database must be running when you call this, if it is stopped, [start it](/en/api-reference/endpoint/databases/start) first. To rotate the certificate instead of just reading it, use [Reset Credentials](/en/api-reference/endpoint/databases/credentials/reset) with `reset: "certificate"`, then re-fetch it here.

### Parameters

<ParamField path="database_id" type="string" placeholder="Database ID" required>
  The ID of the database.
</ParamField>

### Response

<ResponseField name="status" type="string">
  Indicates whether the call was successful.. `success` if successful, `error` if not.
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="response" type="object">
  The contents of the response.

  <Expandable title="Toggle object">
    <ResponseField name="certificate" type="string">
      The certificate encoded in base64.
    </ResponseField>
  </Expandable>
</ResponseField>

<ResponseExample>
  ```json theme={null}
  {
      "status": "success",
      "response": {
          "certificate": "CERTIFICATE_IN_BASE_64_FORMAT"
      }
  }
  ```
</ResponseExample>

### Common errors

| Code                   | HTTP | Meaning                                                           |
| ---------------------- | ---- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `DATABASE_NOT_RUNNING` | 400  | The database is stopped; start it before reading the certificate. |
| `READ_FAILED`          | 400  | The certificate file could not be read from the cluster.          |
| `DATABASE_NOT_FOUND`   | 404  | The database does not exist or is not owned by the caller.        |