I like to think of a machine as OpenShift representation of a Virtual Machine, such as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 Instance, or a VMWare Virtual Machine, and then a Node, and then the pods running on the node. Machine Configs can be used to configure the Virtual Machine Operating System, such as configuring a Linux systemd service such as sshd or chronyd or Network Manager.

This assumes you have used the REST API to obtain an OAuth bearer token. Let's say the bearer token is sha256~0Rs__hPuXmBD3TJTXNDisC7wRBN-nrFnYTxgdBrFT-U.

Here is how you would list Machines using curl.

curl
--insecure
--request GET
--header "Accept: application/json"
--header "Authorization: Bearer sha256~0Rs__hPuXmBD3TJTXNDisC7wRBN-nrFnYTxgdBrFT-U"
--url "https://api.openshift.example.com:6443/apis/machine.openshift.io/v1beta1/namespaces/openshift-machine-api/machines"

Or to return a specific machine.

curl
--insecure
--request GET
--header "Accept: application/json"
--header "Authorization: Bearer sha256~0Rs__hPuXmBD3TJTXNDisC7wRBN-nrFnYTxgdBrFT-U"
--url "https://api.openshift.example.com:6443/apis/machine.openshift.io/v1beta1/namespaces/openshift-machine-api/machines/my-machine-2xqdt"

Something like this should be returned.

{
  "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
  "kind": "Machine",
  "metadata": {
    "annotations": {
      "machine.openshift.io/instance-state": "poweredOn"
    },
    "creationTimestamp": "2023-07-07T15:34:29Z",
    "finalizers": [
      "machine.machine.openshift.io"
    ],
    "generateName": "my-worker-",
    "generation": 2,
    "labels": {
      "machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-cluster": "my-cluster",
      "machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machine-role": "worker",
      "machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machine-type": "worker",
      "machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machineset": "my-cluster-worker",
      "machine.openshift.io/region": "",
      "machine.openshift.io/zone": ""
    },
    "managedFields": [
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "fieldsType": "FieldsV1",
        "fieldsV1": {
          "f:metadata": {
            "f:generateName": {},
            "f:labels": {
              ".": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-cluster": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machine-role": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machine-type": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machineset": {}
            },
            "f:ownerReferences": {
              ".": {},

            }
          },
          "f:spec": {
            ".": {},
            "f:lifecycleHooks": {},
            "f:metadata": {},
            "f:providerSpec": {
              ".": {},
              "f:value": {
                ".": {},
                "f:apiVersion": {},
                "f:credentialsSecret": {
                  ".": {},
                  "f:name": {}
                },
                "f:diskGiB": {},
                "f:kind": {},
                "f:memoryMiB": {},
                "f:metadata": {
                  ".": {},
                  "f:creationTimestamp": {}
                },
                "f:network": {
                  ".": {},
                  "f:devices": {}
                },
                "f:numCPUs": {},
                "f:numCoresPerSocket": {},
                "f:snapshot": {},
                "f:template": {},
                "f:userDataSecret": {
                  ".": {},
                  "f:name": {}
                },
                "f:workspace": {
                  ".": {},
                  "f:datacenter": {},
                  "f:datastore": {},
                  "f:folder": {},
                  "f:resourcePool": {},
                  "f:server": {}
                }
              }
            }
          }
        },
        "manager": "machineset-controller",
        "operation": "Update",
        "time": "2023-07-07T15:34:29Z"
      },
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "fieldsType": "FieldsV1",
        "fieldsV1": {
          "f:metadata": {
            "f:annotations": {
              ".": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/instance-state": {}
            },
            "f:finalizers": {
              ".": {},
              "v:\"machine.machine.openshift.io\"": {}
            },
            "f:labels": {
              "f:machine.openshift.io/region": {},
              "f:machine.openshift.io/zone": {}
            }
          },
          "f:spec": {
            "f:providerID": {}
          }
        },
        "manager": "machine-controller-manager",
        "operation": "Update",
        "time": "2024-05-13T16:16:28Z"
      },
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "fieldsType": "FieldsV1",
        "fieldsV1": {
          "f:status": {
            "f:conditions": {}
          }
        },
        "manager": "Go-http-client",
        "operation": "Update",
        "subresource": "status",
        "time": "2025-01-15T17:49:31Z"
      },
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "fieldsType": "FieldsV1",
        "fieldsV1": {
          "f:status": {
            "f:lastUpdated": {},
            "f:nodeRef": {}
          }
        },
        "manager": "nodelink-controller",
        "operation": "Update",
        "subresource": "status",
        "time": "2025-03-21T17:08:31Z"
      },
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "fieldsType": "FieldsV1",
        "fieldsV1": {
          "f:status": {
            ".": {},
            "f:addresses": {},
            "f:phase": {},
            "f:providerStatus": {
              ".": {},
              "f:conditions": {},
              "f:instanceId": {},
              "f:instanceState": {},
              "f:taskRef": {}
            }
          }
        },
        "manager": "machine-controller-manager",
        "operation": "Update",
        "subresource": "status",
        "time": "2025-03-21T17:08:38Z"
      }
    ],
    "name": "my-cluster-worker-2xqdt",
    "namespace": "openshift-machine-api",
    "ownerReferences": [
      {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "blockOwnerDeletion": true,
        "controller": true,
        "kind": "MachineSet",
        "name": "my-cluster-worker",
        "uid": "57d19e1d-6533-4a76-ad21-f5109e18f357"
      }
    ],
    "resourceVersion": "475217234",
    "uid": "927b2375-db4d-4547-b9a4-bf764a2fd13f"
  },
  "spec": {
    "lifecycleHooks": {},
    "metadata": {},
    "providerID": "vsphere://423c21f0-c4f4-fa1e-c658-b7f68078f767",
    "providerSpec": {
      "value": {
        "apiVersion": "machine.openshift.io/v1beta1",
        "credentialsSecret": {
          "name": "vsphere-cloud-credentials"
        },
        "diskGiB": 120,
        "kind": "VSphereMachineProviderSpec",
        "memoryMiB": 65536,
        "metadata": {
          "creationTimestamp": null
        },
        "network": {
          "devices": [
            {
              "networkName": "my-network"
            }
          ]
        },
        "numCPUs": 4,
        "numCoresPerSocket": 4,
        "snapshot": "",
        "template": "my-cluster-rhcos",
        "userDataSecret": {
          "name": "worker-user-data"
        },
        "workspace": {
          "datacenter": "my-data-center",
          "datastore": "my-data-store",
          "folder": "/openshift/my-cluster",
          "resourcePool": "my-resource-pool",
          "server": "server1"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "status": {
    "addresses": [
      {
        "address": "10.11.12.13",
        "type": "InternalIP"
      },
      {
        "address": "169.254.169.2",
        "type": "InternalIP"
      },
      {
        "address": "fe80::87c8:6aef:95d6:c6b9",
        "type": "InternalIP"
      },
      {
        "address": "my-cluster-worker-2xqdt",
        "type": "InternalDNS"
      }
    ],
    "conditions": [
      {
        "lastTransitionTime": "2023-07-07T15:34:30Z",
        "status": "True",
        "type": "Drainable"
      },
      {
        "lastTransitionTime": "2024-10-09T18:57:56Z",
        "status": "True",
        "type": "InstanceExists"
      },
      {
        "lastTransitionTime": "2023-07-07T15:34:30Z",
        "status": "True",
        "type": "Terminable"
      }
    ],
    "lastUpdated": "2025-03-21T17:08:31Z",
    "nodeRef": {
      "kind": "Node",
      "name": "my-cluster-worker-2xqdt",
      "uid": "b3b3bef4-3ed8-4170-a4a3-5195bcdb0c9b"
    },
    "phase": "Running",
    "providerStatus": {
      "conditions": [
        {
          "lastTransitionTime": "2023-07-07T15:34:32Z",
          "message": "Machine successfully created",
          "reason": "MachineCreationSucceeded",
          "status": "True",
          "type": "MachineCreation"
        }
      ],
      "instanceId": "423c21f0-c4f4-fa1e-c658-b7f68078f767",
      "instanceState": "poweredOn",
      "taskRef": "task-43063"
    }
  }
}