@octokit/auth-app

What is @octokit/auth-app?

@octokit/auth-app is an npm package that provides authentication for GitHub Apps. It allows you to authenticate as a GitHub App or as an installation of a GitHub App, enabling you to interact with the GitHub API in a secure and efficient manner.

What are @octokit/auth-app's main functionalities?

Authenticate as a GitHub App

This feature allows you to authenticate as a GitHub App using the app's ID, private key, client ID, and client secret. The code sample demonstrates how to create an app authentication object.

const { createAppAuth } = require('@octokit/auth-app');
const auth = createAppAuth({
  id: process.env.APP_ID,
  privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY,
  clientId: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET
});

const appAuthentication = await auth({ type: 'app' });
console.log(appAuthentication);

Authenticate as an installation

This feature allows you to authenticate as an installation of a GitHub App. The code sample demonstrates how to create an installation authentication object using the installation ID.

const { createAppAuth } = require('@octokit/auth-app');
const auth = createAppAuth({
  id: process.env.APP_ID,
  privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY,
  clientId: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET
});

const installationAuthentication = await auth({
  type: 'installation',
  installationId: process.env.INSTALLATION_ID
});
console.log(installationAuthentication);

Authenticate as an installation with refresh

This feature allows you to authenticate as an installation and refresh the token if needed. The code sample demonstrates how to create an installation authentication object with token refresh.

const { createAppAuth } = require('@octokit/auth-app');
const auth = createAppAuth({
  id: process.env.APP_ID,
  privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY,
  clientId: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
  clientSecret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET
});

const { token } = await auth({
  type: 'installation',
  installationId: process.env.INSTALLATION_ID,
  refresh: true
});
console.log(token);

Other packages similar to @octokit/auth-app

octokit

The 'octokit' package is a comprehensive toolkit for interacting with the GitHub API. It includes various plugins for authentication, including GitHub App authentication. Compared to @octokit/auth-app, 'octokit' provides a broader range of functionalities beyond just authentication.

node-github

The 'node-github' package is another library for interacting with the GitHub API. It supports various authentication methods, including OAuth and personal access tokens. While it offers similar functionalities, it is not as specialized in GitHub App authentication as @octokit/auth-app.

github-api

The 'github-api' package is a lightweight library for interacting with the GitHub API. It supports basic authentication methods but does not provide the same level of support for GitHub App authentication as @octokit/auth-app.

README

auth-app.js

GitHub App authentication for JavaScript

@octokit/auth-app implements authentication for GitHub Apps using JSON Web Token, installation access tokens, and OAuth user-to-server access tokens.

• Standalone usage
  • Authenticate as GitHub App (JSON Web Token)
  • Authenticate as OAuth App (client ID/client secret)
  • Authenticate as installation
  • Authenticate as user
• Usage with Octokit
• createAppAuth(options) or new Octokit({ auth })
• auth(options) or octokit.auth(options)
  • JSON Web Token (JWT) Authentication
  • OAuth App authentication
  • Installation authentication
  • User authentication (web flow)
  • User authentication (device flow)
• Authentication object
  • JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication
  • OAuth App authentication
  • Installation access token authentication
  • GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring disabled
  • GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring enabled
• auth.hook(request, route, parameters) or auth.hook(request, options)
• Types
• Implementation details
• License

Standalone usage

Browsers

⚠️ @octokit/auth-app is not meant for usage in the browser. A private key and client secret must not be exposed to users. The private keys provided by GitHub are in PKCS#1 format, but the WebCrypto API only supports PKCS#8. You need to convert it first: openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -outform PEM -nocrypt -in private-key.pem -out private-key-pkcs8.key The OAuth APIs to create user-to-server tokens cannot be used because they do not have CORS enabled. If you know what you are doing, load @octokit/auth-app directly from esm.sh <script type="module"> import { createAppAuth } from "https://esm.sh/@octokit/auth-app"; </script>

Node

Install with npm install @octokit/auth-app import { createAppAuth } from "@octokit/auth-app";

[!IMPORTANT] As we use conditional exports, you will need to adapt your tsconfig.json by setting "moduleResolution": "node16", "module": "node16".

See the TypeScript docs on package.json "exports".
See this helpful guide on transitioning to ESM from @sindresorhus

Authenticate as GitHub App (JSON Web Token)

const auth = createAppAuth({
  appId: 1,
  privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
  clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef",
  clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef12341234567890abcdef1234",
});

// Retrieve JSON Web Token (JWT) to authenticate as app
const appAuthentication = await auth({ type: "app" });

resolves with

{
  "type": "app",
  "token": "jsonwebtoken123",
  "appId": 123,
  "expiresAt": "2018-07-07T00:09:30.000Z"
}

Authenticate as OAuth App (client ID/client secret)

The OAuth Application APIs require the app to authenticate using clientID/client as Basic Authentication

const auth = createAppAuth({
  appId: 1,
  privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
  clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef",
  clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef12341234567890abcdef1234",
});

const appAuthentication = await auth({
  type: "oauth-app",
});

resolves with

{
  "type": "oauth-app",
  "clientId": "lv1.1234567890abcdef",
  "clientSecret": "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678",
  "headers": {
    "authorization": "basic bHYxLjEyMzQ1Njc4OTBhYmNkZWY6MTIzNDU2Nzg5MGFiY2RlZjEyMzQ1Njc4OTBhYmNkZWYxMjM0NTY3OA=="
  }
}

Authenticate as installation

const auth = createAppAuth({
  appId: 1,
  privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
  clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef",
  clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef12341234567890abcdef1234",
});

// Retrieve installation access token
const installationAuthentication = await auth({
  type: "installation",
  installationId: 123,
});

resolves with

{
  "type": "token",
  "tokenType": "installation",
  "token": "token123",
  "installationId": 123,
  "createdAt": "2018-07-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "expiresAt": "2018-07-07T00:59:00.000Z"
}

Authenticate as user

const auth = createAppAuth({
  appId: 1,
  privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
  clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef",
  clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef12341234567890abcdef1234",
});

// Retrieve an oauth-access token
const userAuthentication = await auth({ type: "oauth-user", code: "123456" });

Resolves with

{
  "type": "token",
  "tokenType": "oauth",
  "token": "token123"
}

Usage with Octokit

Browsers

⚠️ @octokit/auth-app is not meant for usage in the browser. A private key and client secret must not be exposed to users. The private keys provided by GitHub are in PKCS#1 format, but the WebCrypto API only supports PKCS#8. You need to convert it first: openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -outform PEM -nocrypt -in private-key.pem -out private-key-pkcs8.key The OAuth APIs to create user-to-server tokens cannot be used because they do not have CORS enabled. If you know what you are doing, load @octokit/auth-app and @octokit/core (or a compatible module) directly from esm.sh <script type="module"> import { createAppAuth } from "https://esm.sh/@octokit/auth-app"; import { Octokit } from "https://esm.sh/@octokit/core"; </script>

Node

Install with npm install @octokit/core @octokit/auth-app. Optionally replace @octokit/core with a compatible module import { Octokit } from "@octokit/core"; import { createAppAuth, createOAuthUserAuth } from "@octokit/auth-app";

const appOctokit = new Octokit({
  authStrategy: createAppAuth,
  auth: {
    appId: 1,
    privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
    clientId: "1234567890abcdef1234",
    clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678",
  },
});

// Send requests as GitHub App
const { slug } = await appOctokit.request("GET /app");
console.log("authenticated as %s", slug);

// Send requests as OAuth App
await appOctokit.request("POST /application/{client_id}/token", {
  client_id: "1234567890abcdef1234",
  access_token: "existingtoken123",
});
console.log("token is valid");

// create a new octokit instance that is authenticated as the user
const userOctokit = await appOctokit.auth({
  type: "oauth-user",
  code: "code123",
  factory: (options) => {
    return new Octokit({
      authStrategy: createOAuthUserAuth,
      auth: options,
    });
  },
});

// Exchanges the code for the user access token authentication on first request
// and caches the authentication for successive requests
const {
  data: { login },
} = await userOctokit.request("GET /user");
console.log("Hello, %s!", login);

In order to create an octokit instance that is authenticated as an installation, with automated installation token refresh, set installationId as auth option

const installationOctokit = new Octokit({
  authStrategy: createAppAuth,
  auth: {
    appId: 1,
    privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...",
    installationId: 123,
  },
});

// transparently creates an installation access token the first time it is needed
// and refreshes it when it expires
await installationOctokit.request("POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues", {
  owner: "octocat",
  repo: "hello-world",
  title: "title",
});

createAppAuth(options) or new Octokit({ auth })

name	type	description
appId	number	Required. Find App ID on the app’s about page in settings.
privateKey	string	Required. Content of the *.pem file you downloaded from the app’s about page. You can generate a new private key if needed. If your private key contains escaped newlines (`\\n`), they will be automatically replaced with actual newlines.
installationId	number	Default installationId to be used when calling auth({ type: "installation" }).
clientId	string	The client ID of the GitHub App.
clientSecret	string	A client secret for the GitHub App.
request	function	Automatically set to octokit.request when using with an Octokit constructor. For standalone usage, you can pass in your own @octokit/request instance. For usage with enterprise, set baseUrl to the hostname + /api/v3. Example: import { request } from "@octokit/request"; createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", request: request.defaults({ baseUrl: "https://ghe.my-company.com/api/v3", }), });
cache	object	Installation tokens expire after an hour. By default, @octokit/auth-app is caching up to 15000 tokens simultaneously using lru-cache. You can pass your own cache implementation by passing options.cache.{get,set} to the constructor. Example: const CACHE = {}; createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", cache: { async get(key) { return CACHE[key]; }, async set(key, value) { CACHE[key] = value; }, }, });
log	object	You can pass in your preferred logging tool by passing option.log to the constructor. If you would like to make the log level configurable using an environment variable or external option, we recommend the console-log-level package. For example: import consoleLogLevel from "console-log-level"; createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", log: consoleLogLevel({ level: "info" }), });

auth(options) or octokit.auth(options)

The async auth() method accepts different options depending on your use case

JSON Web Token (JWT) Authentication

Authenticate as the GitHub app to list installations, repositories, and create installation access tokens.

name	type	description
type	string	Required. Must be either "app".

OAuth App authentication

Create, reset, refresh, delete OAuth user-to-server tokens

name	type	description
type	string	Required. Must be either "oauth-app".

Installation authentication

name	type	description
type	string	Required. Must be "installation".
installationId	number	Required unless a default installationId was passed to createAppAuth(). ID of installation to retrieve authentication for.
repositoryIds	array of numbers	The id of the repositories that the installation token can access. Also known as a databaseID when querying the repository object in GitHub's GraphQL API. This option is **(recommended)** over repositoryNames when needing to limit the scope of the access token, due to repositoryNames having the possibility of changing. Additionally, you should only include either repositoryIds or repositoryNames, but not both.
repositoryNames	array of strings	The name of the repositories that the installation token can access. As mentioned in the repositoryIds description, you should only include either repositoryIds or repositoryNames, but not both.
permissions	object	The permissions granted to the access token. The permissions object includes the permission names and their access type. For a complete list of permissions and allowable values, see GitHub App permissions.
factory	function	The auth({type: "installation", installationId, factory }) call with resolve with whatever the factory function returns. The factory function will be called with all the strategy option that auth was created with, plus the additional options passed to auth, besides type and factory. For example, you can create a new auth instance for an installation which shares the internal state (especially the access token cache) with the calling auth instance: const appAuth = createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", }); const installationAuth123 = await appAuth({ type: "installation", installationId: 123, factory: createAppAuth, });
refresh	boolean	Installation tokens expire after one hour. By default, tokens are cached and returned from cache until expired. To bypass and update a cached token for the given installationId, set refresh to true. Defaults to false.

User authentication (web flow)

Exchange code received from the web flow redirect described in step 2 of GitHub's OAuth web flow

name	type	description
type	string	Required. Must be "oauth-user".
factory	function	The auth({type: "oauth-user", factory }) call with resolve with whatever the factory function returns. The factory function will be called with all the strategy option that auth was created with, plus the additional options passed to auth, besides type and factory. For example, you can create a new auth instance for an installation which shares the internal state (especially the access token cache) with the calling auth instance: import { createAppAuth, createOAuthUserAuth } from "@octokit/auth-oauth-app"; const appAuth = createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef", clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678", }); const userAuth = await appAuth({ type: "oauth-user", code, factory: createOAuthUserAuth, }); // will create token upon first call, then cache authentication for successive calls, // until token needs to be refreshed (if enabled for the GitHub App) const authentication = await userAuth();
code	string	The authorization code which was passed as query parameter to the callback URL from the OAuth web application flow.
redirectUrl	string	The URL in your application where users are sent after authorization. See redirect urls.
state	string	The unguessable random string you provided in Step 1 of the OAuth web application flow.

User authentication (device flow)

Create a token using GitHub's device flow.

The device flow does not require a client secret, but it is required as strategy option for @octokit/auth-app, even for the device flow. If you want to implement the device flow without requiring a client secret, use @octokit/auth-oauth-device.

name	type	description
type	string	Required. Must be "oauth-user".
onVerification	function	Required. A function that is called once the device and user codes were retrieved. The onVerification() callback can be used to pause until the user completes step 2, which might result in a better user experience. const auth = auth({ type: "oauth-user", onVerification(verification) { console.log("Open %s", verification.verification_uri); console.log("Enter code: %s", verification.user_code); await prompt("press enter when you are ready to continue"); }, });
factory	function	The auth({type: "oauth-user", factory }) call with resolve with whatever the factory function returns. The factory function will be called with all the strategy option that auth was created with, plus the additional options passed to auth, besides type and factory. For example, you can create a new auth instance for an installation which shares the internal state (especially the access token cache) with the calling auth instance: import { createAppAuth, createOAuthUserAuth } from "@octokit/auth-oauth-app"; const appAuth = createAppAuth({ appId: 1, privateKey: "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\n...", clientId: "lv1.1234567890abcdef", clientSecret: "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678", }); const userAuth = await appAuth({ type: "oauth-user", code, factory: createOAuthUserAuth, }); // will create token upon first call, then cache authentication for successive calls, // until token needs to be refreshed (if enabled for the GitHub App) const authentication = await userAuth();

Authentication object

Depending on on the auth() call, the resulting authentication object can be one of

1. JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication
2. OAuth App authentication
3. Installation access token authentication
4. GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring disabled
5. GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring enabled

JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication

name	type	description
type	string	"app"
token	string	The JSON Web Token (JWT) to authenticate as the app.
appId	number	GitHub App database ID.
expiresAt	string	Timestamp in UTC format, e.g. "2018-07-07T00:09:30.000Z". A Date object can be created using new Date(authentication.expiresAt).

OAuth App authentication

name	type	description
type	string	"oauth-app"
clientType	string	"github-app"
clientId	string	The client ID as passed to the constructor.
clientSecret	string	The client secret as passed to the constructor.
headers	object	{ authorization }.

Installation access token authentication

name	type	description
type	string	"token"
token	string	The installation access token.
tokenType	string	"installation"
installationId	number	Installation database ID.
createdAt	string	Timestamp in UTC format, e.g. "2018-07-07T00:00:00.000Z". A Date object can be created using new Date(authentication.expiresAt).
expiresAt	string	Timestamp in UTC format, e.g. "2018-07-07T00:59:00.000Z". A Date object can be created using new Date(authentication.expiresAt).
repositoryIds	array of numbers	Only present if repositoryIds option passed to auth(options).
repositoryNames	array of strings	Only present if repositoryNames option passed to auth(options).
permissions	object	An object where keys are the permission name and the value is either "read" or "write". See the list of all GitHub App Permissions.
singleFileName	string	If the single file permission is enabled, the singleFileName property is set to the path of the accessible file.

GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring disabled

name	type	description
type	string	"token"
tokenType	string	"oauth"
clientType	string	"github-app"
clientId	string	The app's Client ID
clientSecret	string	One of the app's client secrets
token	string	The user access token

GitHub APP user authentication token with expiring enabled

name	type	description
type	string	"token"
tokenType	string	"oauth"
clientType	string	"github-app"
clientId	string	The app's Client ID
clientSecret	string	One of the app's client secrets
token	string	The user access token
refreshToken	string	The refresh token
expiresAt	string	Date timestamp in ISO 8601 standard. Example: 2022-01-01T08:00:0.000Z
refreshTokenExpiresAt	string	Date timestamp in ISO 8601 standard. Example: 2021-07-01T00:00:0.000Z

auth.hook(request, route, parameters) or auth.hook(request, options)

auth.hook() hooks directly into the request life cycle. It amends the request to authenticate either as app or as installation based on the request URL. Although the "machine-man" preview has graduated to the official API, https://developer.github.com/changes/2020-08-20-graduate-machine-man-and-sailor-v-previews/, it is still required in versions of GitHub Enterprise up to 2.21 so it automatically sets the "machine-man" preview for all endpoints requiring JWT authentication.

The request option is an instance of @octokit/request. The arguments are the same as for the request() method.

auth.hook() can be called directly to send an authenticated request

const { data: installations } = await auth.hook(
  request,
  "GET /app/installations",
);

Or it can be passed as option to request().

const requestWithAuth = request.defaults({
  request: {
    hook: auth.hook,
  },
});

const { data: installations } = await requestWithAuth("GET /app/installations");

Note that auth.hook() does not create and set an OAuth authentication token. But you can use @octokit/auth-oauth-app for that functionality. And if you don't plan on sending requests to routes that require authentication with client_id and client_secret, you can just retrieve the token and then create a new instance of request() with the authentication header set:

const { token } = await auth({
  type: "oauth-user",
  code: "123456",
});
const requestWithAuth = request.defaults({
  headers: {
    authentication: `token ${token}`,
  },
});

Types

import {
  // strategy options
  StrategyOptions,
  // auth options
  AuthOptions,
  AppAuthOptions,
  OAuthAppAuthOptions,
  InstallationAuthOptions,
  OAuthWebFlowAuthOptions,
  OAuthDeviceFlowAuthOptions,
  // authentication objects
  Authentication,
  AppAuthentication,
  OAuthAppAuthentication,
  InstallationAccessTokenAuthentication,
  GitHubAppUserAuthentication,
  GitHubAppUserAuthenticationWithExpiration,
} from "@octokit/auth-app";

Implementation details

When creating a JSON Web Token, it sets the "issued at time" (iat) to 30s in the past as we have seen people running situations where the GitHub API claimed the iat would be in future. It turned out the clocks on the different machine were not in sync.

Installation access tokens are valid for 60 minutes. This library invalidates them after 59 minutes to account for request delays.

All OAuth features are implemented internally using @octokit/auth-oauth-app.

License

MIT