REST API with an account secured by a public key

RouterOS Scripting
1

I’m trying:

curl -k -u ngvmonitoring: --pass '> passphrase> ’ --key > keydir> /id_rsa https://> routerIPaddress> /rest/system/resource

but the response is:

{“error”:401,“message”:“Unauthorized”}

The account ngvmonitoring has an

ssh

public key but an undefined password. We already use it successfully with the Java

com.jcraft.jschJSch

library where we automate scripted login and command-response sessions, but I’d like to use the REST API if possible. It seems that the REST API works by password authentication only. Is this so?