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API Overview

Authara exposes a small HTTP API used by applications and SDKs to interact with the authentication system.

The API is designed to be:

  • simple
  • predictable
  • stable across versions

Most browser-based authentication flows use HTML endpoints under /auth, while programmatic integrations use JSON endpoints under /auth/api/v1.

API Contract

Authara maintains a formal API contract that defines the stability guarantees of the public HTTP interface.

This contract covers:

  • endpoint paths
  • response structures
  • cookie names
  • error envelope format
  • versioning rules

The contract is defined in the repository:

APICONTRACT.md

https://github.com/authara-org/authara/blob/main/APICONTRACT.md

Applications and SDKs may rely on this document when integrating with Authara.

Base Path

Authara is typically mounted under:

/auth

Example routing:

/auth/* → Authara
/*      → Application

All API endpoints are therefore available under:

/auth/api/v1

Example:

/auth/api/v1/user

A full list of available endpoints can be found in the Endpoints documentation.

Authentication Model

API endpoints rely on the Authara session cookies:

  • authara_access
  • authara_refresh

These cookies are automatically sent by the browser with each request.

Applications do not need to manually attach tokens.

Authentication is performed using the access token contained in the authara_access cookie.

See Cookies for details about how Authara manages authentication cookies.

Response Format

Successful responses return standard JSON responses.

Example:

{
  "id": "a8f7c1f5-5d2b-4a3a-91c5-1c87b6e19c41",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "username": "user",
  "roles": [],
  "disabled": false,
  "created_at": "2026-01-01T12:00:00Z"
}

The exact structure depends on the endpoint.

See Endpoints for endpoint-specific response formats.

Error Responses

Errors are returned using a consistent JSON envelope.

Example:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "unauthorized",
    "message": "Invalid refresh token"
  }
}

The structure and available error codes are documented in Errors.

CSRF Protection

Some endpoints require a CSRF token for protection against cross-site request forgery.

For browser requests, the token must be provided either:

  • as the X-CSRF-Token request header
  • as a hidden form field

The value must match the authara_csrf cookie.

See Cookies for details about the CSRF cookie and Errors for CSRF-related error responses.

API Versioning

Authara uses path-based versioning.

Current version:

/auth/api/v1

This allows future API versions to evolve without breaking existing integrations.

Endpoint Categories

The API currently includes endpoints for:

Category Purpose
User Retrieve the authenticated user
Session Refresh the current session

All endpoints are documented in Endpoints.

Intended Usage

The API is primarily used by:

  • backend applications
  • SDKs
  • browser helpers

Most applications will interact with Authara through:

  • session cookies
  • redirect-based login flows
  • the /auth/api/v1/user endpoint

Summary

Authara provides a small, stable HTTP API for retrieving authentication state and managing sessions.

For detailed information see: