get_user_details_by_username don't work in Cloud using atlassian-python-api package

Zhichao Wei

Hello, I try to query someone's information through get_user_details_by_username provided in confluence.py from atlassian-python-api package,which can be found in https://atlassian-python-api.readthedocs.io/confluence.html . It works well in confluence DC when url is "https://your-confluence-server.com" .
But if url is "https://your-domain.atlassian.net" which means Cloud site,it response 400.

My code is like:

detail = confluence.get_user_details_by_username('zhichaow', expand=None)

Here is detailed output after running:

2025-09-02 07:30:21,054 - atlassian.rest_client - DEBUG - curl --silent -X GET -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' 'https://internal-nvidia-uat2.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/user?username=zhichaow'
2025-09-02 07:30:21,117 - urllib3.connectionpool - DEBUG - https://internal-nvidia-uat2.atlassian.net:443 "GET /wiki/rest/api/user?username=zhichaow HTTP/11" 400 None
2025-09-02 07:30:21,118 - atlassian.rest_client - DEBUG - HTTP: GET rest/api/user -> 400 Bad Request
2025-09-02 07:30:21,118 - atlassian.rest_client - DEBUG - HTTP: Response text -> {"statusCode":400,"data":{"authorized":true,"valid":true,"errors":[],"successful":true},"message":"com.atlassian.confluence.api.service.exceptions.BadRequestException: Username/Userkey are not accepted as parameters."}

Could anyone help me query user details in Cloud correctly?

 

ELFAPP Technologies

Hi @Zhichao Wei 

On Cloud username/userkey doesn't work. You have to use accountId if you want to retrieve a specific user. I believe that API is just for backward compatibility and doesn't reflect the actual work. Also, based on the error, it mentions that username/key are not accepted parameters.