Add Login Using the Authorization Code Flow

This tutorial will help you add login to your regular web application using the Authorization Code Flow. If you want to learn how the flow works and why you should use it, see Authorization Code Flow. If you want to learn to call your API from a regular web app, see Call Your API Using the Authorization Code Flow.

Auth0 makes it easy for your app to implement the Authorization Code Flow using:

Regular Web App Quickstarts: The easiest way to implement the flow.
Authentication API: If you prefer to roll your own, keep reading to learn how to call our API directly.

Following successful login, your application will have access to the user's ID Token and Access Token. The ID Token will contain basic user profile information, and the Access Token can be used to call the Auth0 /userinfo endpoint or your own protected APIs.

Before beginning this tutorial:

Register your Application with Auth0.
- Select an Application Type of Regular Web Apps.
- Add an Allowed Callback URL of https://YOUR_APP/callback.
- Make sure your Application's Grant Types include Authorization Code.

Authorize user: Request the user's authorization and redirect back to your app with an authorization_code.
Request tokens: Exchange your authorization_code for tokens.

Optional: Explore sample use cases

To begin the flow, you'll need to get the user's authorization. This step may include one or more of the following processes:

Authenticating the user;
Redirecting the user to an Identity Provider to handle authentication;
Obtaining user consent for the requested permission level, unless consent has been previously given.

To authorize the user, your app must send the user to the authorization URL.

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback&
    scope=SCOPE&
    state=STATE

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Parameter Name	Description
`response_type`	Denotes the kind of credential that Auth0 will return (`code` or `token`). For this flow, the value must be `code`.
`client_id`	Your application's Client ID. You can find this value in your Application Settings.
`redirect_uri`	The URL to which Auth0 will redirect the browser after authorization has been granted by the user. The Authorization Code will be available in the `code` URL parameter. You must specify this URL as a valid callback URL in your Application Settings. Warning: Per the OAuth 2.0 Specification, Auth0 removes everything after the hash and does not honor any fragments.
`scope`	Specifies the scopes for which you want to request authorization, which dictate which claims (or user attributes) you want returned. These must be separated by a space. To get an ID Token in the response, you need to specify a scope of at least `openid`. If you want to return the user's full profile, you can request `openid profile`. You can request any of the standard OpenID Connect (OIDC) scopes about users, such as `email`, or custom claims conforming to a namespaced format. Include `offline_access` to get a Refresh Token (make sure that the Allow Offline Access field is enabled in the Application Settings).
`state`	(recommended) An opaque arbitrary alphanumeric string your app adds to the initial request that Auth0 includes when redirecting back to your application. To see how to use this value to prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, see Mitigate CSRF Attacks With State Parameters.
`connection`	(optional) Forces the user to sign in with a specific connection. For example, you can pass a value of `github` to send the user directly to GitHub to log in with their GitHub account. When not specified, the user sees the Auth0 Lock screen with all configured connections. You can see a list of your configured connections on the Connections tab of your application.

As an example, your HTML snippet for your authorization URL when adding login to your app might look like:

<a href="https://YOUR_DOMAIN/authorize?
  response_type=code&
  client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&
  redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback&
  scope=openid%20profile&
  state=xyzABC123">
  Sign In
</a>

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If all goes well, you'll receive an HTTP 302 response. The authorization code is included at the end of the URL:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://YOUR_APP/callback?code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE&state=xyzABC123

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Now that you have an Authorization Code, you must exchange it for tokens. Using the extracted Authorization Code (code) from the previous step, you will need to POST to the token URL.

Example POST to token URL

cURL
C#
Go
Java
Node.JS
Obj-C
...
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
- Swift

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data grant_type=authorization_code \
  --data 'client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID' \
  --data client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET \
  --data code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE \
  --data 'redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback'

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var client = new RestClient("https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.AddParameter("application/x-www-form-urlencoded", "grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D", ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io/ioutil"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token"

	payload := strings.NewReader("grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(res)
	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

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HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token")
  .header("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
  .body("grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D")
  .asString();

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var request = require("request");

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
  form: {
    grant_type: 'authorization_code',
    client_id: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
    client_secret: 'YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET',
    code: 'YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE',
    redirect_uri: 'https://YOUR_APP/callback'
  }
};

request(options, function (error, response, body) {
  if (error) throw new Error(error);

  console.log(body);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

NSDictionary *headers = @{ @"content-type": @"application/x-www-form-urlencoded" };

NSMutableData *postData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:[@"grant_type=authorization_code" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token"]
                                                       cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
                                                   timeoutInterval:10.0];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
[request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];

NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sharedSession];
NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request
                                            completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
                                                if (error) {
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", error);
                                                } else {
                                                    NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *) response;
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", httpResponse);
                                                }
                                            }];
[dataTask resume];

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$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => "grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    "content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
  ),
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

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import http.client

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("")

payload = "grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D"

headers = { 'content-type': "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" }

conn.request("POST", "/YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token", payload, headers)

res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()

print(data.decode("utf-8"))

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require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'openssl'

url = URI("https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["content-type"] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
request.body = "grant_type=authorization_code&client_id=%24%7Baccount.clientId%7D&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE&redirect_uri=%24%7Baccount.callback%7D"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

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import Foundation

let headers = ["content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"]

let postData = NSMutableData(data: "grant_type=authorization_code".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&code=YOUR_AUTHORIZATION_CODE".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/oauth/token")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers
request.httpBody = postData as Data

let session = URLSession.shared
let dataTask = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    print(error)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse
    print(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()

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Parameter Name	Description
`grant_type`	Set this to `authorization_code`.
`code`	The `authorization_code` retrieved in the previous step of this tutorial.
`client_id`	Your application's Client ID. You can find this value in your Application Settings.
`client_secret`	Your application's Client Secret. You can find this value in your Application Settings.
`redirect_uri`	The valid callback URL set in your Application settings. This must exactly match the `redirect_uri` passed to the authorization URL in the previous step of this tutorial. Note that this must be URL encoded.

If all goes well, you'll receive an HTTP 200 response with a payload containing access_token, refresh_token, id_token, and token_type values:

{
  "access_token": "eyJz93a...k4laUWw",
  "refresh_token": "GEbRxBN...edjnXbL",
  "id_token": "eyJ0XAi...4faeEoQ",
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}

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You should validate your tokens before saving them. To learn how, see Validate ID Tokens and Validate Access Tokens.

ID Tokens contain user information that must be decoded and extracted.

Access Tokens are used to call the Auth0 Authentication API's /userinfo endpoint or another API. If you are calling your own API, the first thing your API will need to do is verify the Access Token.

<dfn data-key="refresh-token">Refresh Tokens</dfn> are used to obtain a new Access Token or ID Token after the previous one has expired. The refresh_token will only be present in the response if you included the offline_access scope and enabled Allow Offline Access for your API in the Dashboard.

Refresh Tokens must be stored securely since they allow a user to remain authenticated essentially forever.

This example shows the most basic request you can make when authorizing the user in step 1. It displays the Auth0 login screen and allows the user to sign in with any of your configured connections:

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback&
    scope=openid

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Now, when you request tokens, your ID Token will contain the most basic claims. When you decode the ID Token, it will look similar to:

{
  "iss": "https://auth0pnp.auth0.com/",
  "sub": "auth0|581...",
  "aud": "xvt9...",
  "exp": 1478112929,
  "iat": 1478076929
}

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In addition to the usual user authentication, this example shows how to request additional user details, such as name and picture.

To request the user's name and picture, you need to add the appropriate scopes when authorizing the user in step 1:

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback&
    scope=openid%20name%20picture&
    state=STATE

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Now, when you request tokens, your ID Token will contain the requested name and picture claims. When you decode the ID Token, it will look similar to:

{
  "name": "jerrie@...",
  "picture": "https://s.gravatar.com/avatar/6222081fd7dcea7dfb193788d138c457?s=480&r=pg&d=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.auth0.com%2Favatars%2Fje.png",
  "iss": "https://auth0pnp.auth0.com/",
  "sub": "auth0|581...",
  "aud": "xvt...",
  "exp": 1478113129,
  "iat": 1478077129
}

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In addition to the usual user authentication, this example shows how to send users directly to a social identity provider, such as GitHub. For this example to work, you will first need to configure the appropriate connection in the Auth0 Dashboard and get the connection name from the Settings tab.

To send users directly to the GitHub login screen, you need to pass the connection parameter and set its value to the connection name (in this case, github) when authorizing the user in step 1:

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/callback&
    scope=openid%20name%20picture&
    state=STATE&
    connection=github

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Now, when you request tokens, your ID Token will contain a sub claim with the user's unique ID returned from GitHub. When you decode the ID Token, it will look similar to:

{
  "name": "Jerrie Pelser",
  "nickname": "jerriep",
  "picture": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1006420?v=3",
  "iss": "https://auth0pnp.auth0.com/",
  "sub": "github|100...",
  "aud": "xvt...",
  "exp": 1478114742,
  "iat": 1478078742
}

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For a list of possible connections, see Identity Providers Supported by Auth0.

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