diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/tool/Canary.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/tool/Canary.java
index 9177bc057f7c..d78c6bb9af9b 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/tool/Canary.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/tool/Canary.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ClusterMetrics.Option;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.DoNotRetryIOException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseInterfaceAudience;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HColumnDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HRegionLocation;
@@ -119,7 +120,7 @@
  * </li>
  * </ol>
  */
-@InterfaceAudience.Private
+@InterfaceAudience.LimitedPrivate(HBaseInterfaceAudience.TOOLS)
 public final class Canary implements Tool {
   /**
    * Sink interface used by the canary to output information