documentation/content/en/methods/oauth.md

title	description	menu	aliases
oauth API methods	Generate and manage OAuth tokens.	docs weight name parent identifier 10 oauth methods-apps methods-oauth	/methods/oauth /api/methods/oauth /methods/apps/oauth

Authorize a user

GET https://mastodon.example/oauth/authorize HTTP/1.1

Displays an authorization form to the user. If approved, it will create and return an authorization code, then redirect to the desired redirect_uri, or show the authorization code if urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob was requested. The authorization code can be used while requesting a token to obtain access to user-level methods.

Returns: String (URL) or HTML response
OAuth: Public
Version history:
0.1.0 - added
2.6.0 - added force_login
3.5.0 - added lang

Request

Query parameters

response_type

{{}} String. Should be set equal to code.

client_id

{{}} String. The client ID, obtained during app registration.

redirect_uri

{{}} String. Set a URI to redirect the user to. If this parameter is set to urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob then the authorization code will be shown instead. Must match one of the redirect_uris declared during app registration.

scope

String. List of requested OAuth scopes, separated by spaces (or by pluses, if using query parameters). Must be a subset of scopes declared during app registration. If not provided, defaults to read.

force_login

Boolean. Forces the user to re-login, which is necessary for authorizing with multiple accounts from the same instance.

lang

String. The ISO 639-1 two-letter language code to use while rendering the authorization form.

Response

200: OK

The authorization code will be returned as a query parameter named code.

redirect_uri?code=qDFUEaYrRK5c-HNmTCJbAzazwLRInJ7VHFat0wcMgCU

400: Client error

If the authorization code is incorrect or has been used already, the request will fail.

{
  "error": "invalid_grant",
  "error_description": "The provided authorization grant is invalid, expired, revoked, does not match the redirection URI used in the authorization request, or was issued to another client."
}

---

Obtain a token

POST https://mastodon.example/oauth/token HTTP/1.1

Obtain an access token, to be used during API calls that are not public.

Returns: [Token]({{< relref "entities/token" >}})
OAuth: Public
Version history:
0.1.0 - added

Request

Form data parameters

grant_type

{{}} String. Set equal to authorization_code if code is provided in order to gain user-level access. Otherwise, set equal to client_credentials to obtain app-level access only.

code

String. A user authorization code, obtained via GET /oauth/authorize.

client_id

{{}} String. The client ID, obtained during app registration.

redirect_uri

{{}} String. Set a URI to redirect the user to. If this parameter is set to urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob then the token will be shown instead. Must match one of the redirect_uris declared during app registration.

scope

String. List of requested OAuth scopes, separated by spaces (or by pluses, if using query parameters). If code was provided, then this must be equal to the scope requested from the user. Otherwise, it must be a subset of scopes declared during app registration. If not provided, defaults to read.

Response

200: OK

Store this access_token for later use with auth-required methods. The token should be passed as an HTTP Authorization header when making API calls, with the value Bearer access_token

{
  "access_token": "ZA-Yj3aBD8U8Cm7lKUp-lm9O9BmDgdhHzDeqsY8tlL0",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "scope": "read write follow push",
  "created_at": 1573979017
}

400: Client error

If you try to request a scope that was not included when registering the app, the request will fail.

{
  "error": "invalid_scope",
  "error_description": "The requested scope is invalid, unknown, or malformed."
}

401: Unauthorized

If client_id and client_secret do not match or are invalid, the request will fail.

{
  "error": "invalid_client",
  "error_description": "Client authentication failed due to unknown client, no client authentication included, or unsupported authentication method."
}

---

Revoke a token

POST https://mastodon.example/oauth/revoke HTTP/1.1

Revoke an access token to make it no longer valid for use.

Returns: empty object
OAuth: Public
Version history:
x.x.x - added

Request

Form data parameters

client_id

{{}} String. The client ID, obtained during app registration.

client_secret

{{}} String. The client secret, obtained durign app registration.

token

{{}} String. The previously obtained token, to be invalidated.

Response

200: OK

If you own the provided token, the API call will provide an empty response. This operation is idempotent, so calling this API multiple times will still return OK.

{}

403: Forbidden

If you provide a token you do not own, or no token at all, the API call will return a 403 error.

{
  "error": "unauthorized_client",
  "error_description": "You are not authorized to revoke this token"
}

---

See also

{{< page-relref ref="methods/apps#create" caption="POST /api/v1/apps" >}}

{{< caption-link url="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/app/controllers/oauth/authorizations_controller.rb" caption="app/controllers/oauth/authorizations_controller.rb" >}}

{{< caption-link url="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/app/controllers/oauth/authorized_applications_controller.rb" caption="app/controllers/oauth/authorized_applications_controller.rb" >}}

{{< caption-link url="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/app/controllers/oauth/tokens_controller.rb" caption="app/controllers/oauth/tokens_controller.rb" >}}