Call Your API Using the Device Authorization Flow

This tutorial will help you call your own API from an input-constrained device using the Device Authorization Flow. If you want to learn how the flow works and why you should use it, see Device Authorization Flow.

Auth0 makes it easy for your app to implement the Device Authorization flow using:

Authentication API: Keep reading to learn how to call our API directly. For an interactive experience, read Device Flow Playground.

Prerequisites

Before beginning this tutorial:

Check limitations (below) to be sure the Device Authorization flow is suitable for your implementation.
Register the Application with Auth0.
- Select an Application Type of Native.
- If necessary, set Allowed Web Origins. You can use this to allow localhost as an origin for local development, or to set an allowed origin for specific TV software with architecture subject to CORS (e.g., HTML5 + JS). Most applications will not use this setting.
- Ensure that the OIDC Conformant toggle is enabled. This setting is in the Dashboard under Applications > Application > Advanced Settings > OAuth.
- Make sure the Application's Grant Types include Device Code. To learn how, read Update Grant Types.
- If you want your Application to be able to use Refresh Tokens, make sure the Application's Grant Types include Refresh Token. To learn how, read Update Grant Types. To learn more about Refresh Tokens, read Refresh Tokens.
Set up and enable at least one connection for the Application: Database connections, Social connections
Register your API with Auth0
- If you want your API to receive Refresh Tokens to allow it to obtain new tokens when the previous ones expire, enable Allow Offline Access. To learn more about Refresh Tokens, read Refresh Tokens.
Configure Device User Code Settings to define the character set, format, and length of your randomly-generated user code.

Steps

Request device code (Device Flow): Request a device code that the user can use to authorize the device.
Request device activation (Device Flow): Request that the user authorize the device using their laptop or smartphone.
Request tokens (Device Flow): Poll the token endpoint to request a token.
Authorize user (Browser Flow): The user authorizes the device, so the device can receive tokens.
Receive tokens (Device Flow): After the user successfully authorizes the device, receive tokens.
Call API (Device Flow): Use the retrieved Access Token to call your API.
Refresh tokens (Device Flow): Use a Refresh Token to request new tokens when the existing ones expire.

Optional: Explore sample use cases.

Optional: Troubleshoot.

Request device code

Once the user has started their device app and wants to authorize the device, you'll need to get a device code. When the user begins their session in their browser-based device, this code will be bound to that session.

To get the device code, your app must request a code from the device code URL, including the Client ID.

Example POST to device code URL

cURL
C#
Go
Java
Node.JS
Obj-C
...
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
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curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data 'client_id={yourClientId}' \
  --data 'scope={scope}' \
  --data 'audience={audience}'

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var client = new RestClient("https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
request.AddParameter("application/x-www-form-urlencoded", "client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%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://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code"

	payload := strings.NewReader("client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%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://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code")
  .header("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
  .body("client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%7D")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
  data: {client_id: '{yourClientId}', scope: '{scope}', audience: '{audience}'}
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

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

NSMutableData *postData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:[@"client_id={yourClientId}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&scope={scope}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&audience={audience}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code"]
                                                       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, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => "client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%7D",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "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 = "client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%7D"

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

conn.request("POST", "/{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code", 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://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code")

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 = "client_id={yourClientId}&scope=%7Bscope%7D&audience=%7Baudience%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: "client_id={yourClientId}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&scope={scope}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&audience={audience}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://{yourDomain}/oauth/device/code")! 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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Device code parameters

Note that when requesting a device code to call a custom API, you:

must include an audience parameter
can include additional scopes supported by the target API

If your app wants an Access Token only to retrieve info about the authenticated user, then no audience parameter is required.

Parameter Name	Description
`client_id`	Your application's Client ID. You can find this value in your Application Settings.
`scope`	The scopes for which you want to request authorization. These must be separated by a space. You can request any of the standard OIDC scopes about users, such as `profile` and `email`, custom claims conforming to a namespaced format, or any scopes supported by the target API (e.g., `read:contacts`). Include `openid` to get an ID Token or to be able to use the /userinfo endpoint to retrieve profile information for the user. Include `offline_access` to get a Refresh Token (make sure that the Allow Offline Access field is enabled in the API Settings). Note that this must be URL encoded.
`audience`	The unique identifier of the API your app wants to access. Use the Identifier value on the Settings tab for the API you created as part of the prerequisites for this tutorial. Note that this must be URL encoded.

Device code response

If all goes well, you'll receive an HTTP 200 response with a payload containing device_code, user_code, verification_uri, and expires_in, interval, and verification_uri_complete values:

{
  "device_code": "Ag_EE...ko1p",
  "user_code": "QTZL-MCBW",
  "verification_uri": "https://accounts.acmetest.org/activate",
  "verification_uri_complete": "https://accounts.acmetest.org/activate?user_code=QTZL-MCBW",
  "expires_in": 900,
  "interval": 5
}

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device_code is the unique code for the device. When the user goes to the verification_uri in their browser-based device, this code will be bound to their session.
user_code contains the code that should be input at the verification_uri to authorize the device.
verification_uri contains the URL the user should visit to authorize the device.
verification_uri_complete contains the complete URL the user should visit to authorize the device. This allows your app to embed the user_code in the URL, if you so choose.
expires_in indicates the lifetime (in seconds) of the device_code and user_code.
interval indicates the interval (in seconds) at which the app should poll the token URL to request a token.

You can configure the character set, format, and length of your randomly-generated user code in your tenant settings.

To prevent brute force attacks, we enforce the following limits on user_code:

Minimum length:

BASE20 Letters: 8 characters
Numbers: 9 characters

Maximum length:

20 characters (including hyphens and spaces, which may be added as separators for readability)

Expiration time:

15 minutes

Request device activation

Once you have received a device_code and user_code, you must ask the user to go to the verification_uri on their laptop or smartphone and enter the user_code:

Auth0 Flows Device Authorization Request, sample page showing two activation methods, user_code and QR code

The device_code is not intended for the user directly and should not be displayed during the interaction to avoid confusing the user.

When building a CLI, you could skip this step and immediately open the browser with verification_uri_complete.

Request tokens

While you are waiting for the user to activate the device, begin polling the token URL to request an Access Token. Using the extracted polling interval (interval) from the previous step, you will need to POST to the token URL sending along the device_code.

To avoid errors due to network latency, you should start counting each interval after receipt of the last polling request's response.

Example request token POST to token URL

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

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code \
  --data 'device_code={yourDeviceCode}' \
  --data 'client_id={yourClientId}'

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var client = new RestClient("https://{yourDomain}/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=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}", ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

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package main

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

func main() {

	url := "https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token"

	payload := strings.NewReader("grant_type=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}")

	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://{yourDomain}/oauth/token")
  .header("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
  .body("grant_type=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
  data: new URLSearchParams({
    grant_type: 'urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code',
    device_code: '{yourDeviceCode}',
    client_id: '{yourClientId}'
  })
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

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

NSMutableData *postData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:[@"grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&device_code={yourDeviceCode}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&client_id={yourClientId}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://{yourDomain}/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, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://{yourDomain}/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=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "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=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}"

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

conn.request("POST", "/{yourDomain}/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://{yourDomain}/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=urn%3Aietf%3Aparams%3Aoauth%3Agrant-type%3Adevice_code&device_code=%7ByourDeviceCode%7D&client_id={yourClientId}"

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=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&device_code={yourDeviceCode}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&client_id={yourClientId}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://{yourDomain}/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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Token request parameters

Parameter Name	Description
`grant_type`	Set this to "urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code". This is an extension grant type (as defined by Section 4.5 of RFC6749). Note that this must be URL encoded.
`device_code`	The `device_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.

Token responses

While you wait for the user to authorize the device, you may receive a few different HTTP 4xx responses:

Authorization pending

You will see this error while waiting for the user to take action. Continue polling using the suggested interval retrieved in the previous step of this tutorial.

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
{
  "error": "authorization_pending",
  "error_description": "..."
}

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Slow down

You are polling too fast. Slow down and use the suggested interval retrieved in the previous step of this tutorial. To avoid receiving this error due to network latency, you should start counting each interval after receipt of the last polling request's response.

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
{
  "error": "slow_down",
  "error_description": "..."
}

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Expired token

The user has not authorized the device quickly enough, so the `device_code` has expired. Your application should notify the user that the flow has expired and prompt them to reinitiate the flow.

The expired_token error will be returned exactly once; after that, invalid_grant is returned. Your device must stop polling.

HTTP/1.1 403 Bad Request
{ 
  "error": "expired_token",
  "error_description": "..."
}

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Access denied

Finally, if access is denied, you will receive:

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
{
  "error": "access_denied",
  "error_description": "..."
}

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This can occur for a variety of reasons, including:

the user refused to authorize the device
the authorization server denied the transaction
a configured rule denied access (To learn more, read Auth0 Rules.)

Authorize user

The user will either scan the QR code, or else will open the activation page and enter the user code:

Auth0 Flows Device Authorization prompt directing the user to enter the code displayed on their device

A confirmation page will be shown to have the user confirm that this is the right device:

Auth0 Flows Device Authorization sample confirmation prompt directing the user to confirm the code

The user will complete the transaction by signing in. This step may include one or more of the following processes:

Authenticating the user;
Redirecting the user to an Identity Provider to handle authentication;
Checking for active SSO sessions;
Obtaining user consent for the device, unless consent has been previously given.

Auth0 Flows Device Authorization User authorization prompt directing the user to log in with email and password or with Google or another identity

Upon successful authentication and consent, the confirmation prompt will be shown:

Flows - Device Authorization - Congratulations notification for user

At this point, the user has authenticated, and the device has been authorized.

Receive tokens

While the user has been authenticating and authorizing the device, the device app has continued to poll the token URL to request an Access Token.

Once the user has successfully authorized the device, you'll receive an HTTP 200 response with a payload containing access_token, refresh_token (optionally), id_token (optionally), token_type, and expires_in values:

{
  "access_token":"eyJz93a...k4laUWw",
  "refresh_token":"GEbRxBN...edjnXbL",
  "id_token": "eyJ0XAi...4faeEoQ",
  "token_type":"Bearer",
  "expires_in":86400
}

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Validate your tokens before saving them. To learn how, read Validate ID Tokens and Validate Access Tokens.

Access Tokens are used to call the Auth0 Authentication API's /userinfo endpoint or another API. (To learn more about Access Tokens, read Access Tokens.) You will be able to use the Access Token to call /userinfo only if you included the openid scope. If you are calling your own API, the first thing your API will need to do is verify the Access Token.

ID Tokens contain user information that must be decoded and extracted. (To learn more about ID Tokens, read ID Tokens.) The id_token will only be present in the response if you included the openid scope.

Refresh Tokens are used to obtain a new Access Token or ID Token after the previous one has expired. (To learn more about Refresh Tokens, read Refresh Tokens.) 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.

Call your API

To call your API, the application must pass the retrieved Access Token as a Bearer token in the Authorization header of your HTTP request.

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

curl --request GET \
  --url https://myapi.com/api \
  --header 'authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json'

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var client = new RestClient("https://myapi.com/api");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.GET);
request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/json");
request.AddHeader("authorization", "Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN");
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

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package main

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

func main() {

	url := "https://myapi.com/api"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)

	req.Header.Add("content-type", "application/json")
	req.Header.Add("authorization", "Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN")

	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.get("https://myapi.com/api")
  .header("content-type", "application/json")
  .header("authorization", "Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'GET',
  url: 'https://myapi.com/api',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/json', authorization: 'Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN'}
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

NSDictionary *headers = @{ @"content-type": @"application/json",
                           @"authorization": @"Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" };

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://myapi.com/api"]
                                                       cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
                                                   timeoutInterval:10.0];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"GET"];
[request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];

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, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://myapi.com/api",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "content-type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($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("myapi.com")

headers = {
    'content-type': "application/json",
    'authorization': "Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN"
    }

conn.request("GET", "/api", headers=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://myapi.com/api")

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

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url)
request["content-type"] = 'application/json'
request["authorization"] = 'Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN'

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

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import Foundation

let headers = [
  "content-type": "application/json",
  "authorization": "Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN"
]

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://myapi.com/api")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers

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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Refresh tokens

You have already received a Refresh Token if you've been following this tutorial and completed the following:

configured your API to allow offline access
included the offline_access scope when you initiated the authentication request through the authorize endpoint

You can use the Refresh Token to get a new Access Token. Usually, a user will need a new Access Token only after the previous one expires or when gaining access to a new resource for the first time. It's bad practice to call the endpoint to get a new Access Token every time you call an API, and Auth0 maintains rate limits that will throttle the amount of requests to the endpoint that can be executed using the same token from the same IP.

To refresh your token, make a POST request to the /oauth/token endpoint in the Authentication API, using grant_type=refresh_token.

Example refresh token POST to token URL

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

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
  --header 'content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data grant_type=refresh_token \
  --data 'client_id={yourClientId}' \
  --data 'client_secret={yourClientSecret}' \
  --data 'refresh_token={yourRefreshToken}'

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var client = new RestClient("https://{yourDomain}/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=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%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://{yourDomain}/oauth/token"

	payload := strings.NewReader("grant_type=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%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://{yourDomain}/oauth/token")
  .header("content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
  .body("grant_type=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%7D")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
  data: new URLSearchParams({
    grant_type: 'refresh_token',
    client_id: '{yourClientId}',
    client_secret: '{yourClientSecret}',
    refresh_token: '{yourRefreshToken}'
  })
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

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

NSMutableData *postData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:[@"grant_type=refresh_token" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&client_id={yourClientId}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&client_secret={yourClientSecret}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[postData appendData:[@"&refresh_token={yourRefreshToken}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://{yourDomain}/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, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://{yourDomain}/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=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%7D",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "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=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%7D"

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

conn.request("POST", "/{yourDomain}/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://{yourDomain}/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=refresh_token&client_id={yourClientId}&client_secret={yourClientSecret}&refresh_token=%7ByourRefreshToken%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=refresh_token".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&client_id={yourClientId}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&client_secret={yourClientSecret}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)
postData.append("&refresh_token={yourRefreshToken}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!)

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://{yourDomain}/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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Refresh token request parameters

Parameter Name	Description
`grant_type`	Set this to "refresh_token".
`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.
`refresh_token`	The Refresh Token to use.
`scope`	(Optional) A space-delimited list of requested scope permissions. If not sent, the original scopes will be used; otherwise you can request a reduced set of scopes. Note that this must be URL encoded.

Refresh token response

If all goes well, you'll receive an HTTP 200 response with a payload containing a new access_token, id_token (optionally), token lifetime in seconds (expires_in), granted scope values, and token_type:

{
  "access_token": "eyJ...MoQ",
  "expires_in": 86400,
  "scope": "openid offline_access",
  "id_token": "eyJ...0NE",
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}

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Validate your tokens before saving them. To learn how, read Validate ID Tokens and Validate Access Tokens.

Sample use cases

Detect device authorization flow use

You can use Rules to detect whether the current transaction is using the Device Authorization Flow. (To learn more about rules, read Auth0 Rules.) To do so, check the context object's protocol property:

function (user, context, callback) {
   if (context.protocol === 'oauth2-device-code') {
      ...
   }
 
   callback(null, user, context);
}

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Sample implementations

Device Authorization Playground
AppleTV (Swift): Simple application that shows how Auth0 can be used with the Device Authorization Flow from an AppleTV.
CLI (Node.js): Sample implementation of a CLI that uses the Device Authorization Flow instead of the Authorization Code Flow. The major difference is that your CLI does not need to host a web server and listen on a port.

Troubleshoot

Tenant logs are created for any interaction that takes place and can be used to troubleshoot issues. To learn more, read Logs.

Error codes

Code	Name	Description
`fdeaz`	Failed device authorization request
`fdeac`	Failed device activation
`fdecc`	User canceled the device confirmation
`fede`	Failed Exchange	Device Code for Access Token
`sede`	Success Exchange	Device Code for Access Token

Limitations

To use the Device Authorization Flow, devices must:

Support Server Name Indication (SNI) when Custom Domains are used
Have an Auth0 application type of Native
Have the Token Endpoint Authentication Method set to None
Be OIDC-conformant
Not be created through Dynamic Client Registration

In addition, the Device Authorization Flow does not allow:

Social Connections using Auth0 developer keys unless you are using the Universal Login experience.
Query string parameters to be accessed from hosted login page or rules

We support the full Draft 15, except for confidential Clients. To learn more, read OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant Draft 15 on ietf.org.

Get Started

Call Your API Using the Device Authorization Flow

Prerequisites

Steps

Request device code

Example POST to device code URL

Device code parameters

Device code response

Request device activation

Request tokens

Example request token POST to token URL

Token request parameters

Token responses

Authorization pending

Slow down

Expired token

Access denied

Authorize user

Receive tokens

Call your API

Refresh tokens

Example refresh token POST to token URL

Refresh token request parameters

Refresh token response

Sample use cases

Detect device authorization flow use

Sample implementations

Troubleshoot

Error codes

Limitations

Learn more