Authorizing OAuth Apps

GitHub Enterprise's OAuth implementation supports the standard authorization code grant type and the OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant for apps that don't have access to a web browser.

If you want to skip authorizing your app in the standard way, such as when testing your app, you can use the non-web application flow.

To authorize your OAuth app, consider which authorization flow best fits your app.

• web application flow: Used to authorize users for standard OAuth apps that run in the browser. (The implicit grant type is not supported.)
• device flow: Used for headless apps, such as CLI tools.

Web application flow

The web application flow to authorize users for your app is:

1. Users are redirected to request their GitHub identity
2. Users are redirected back to your site by GitHub
3. Your app accesses the API with the user's access token

1. Request a user's GitHub identity

GET http(s)://[hostname]/login/oauth/authorize

When your GitHub App specifies a login parameter, it prompts users with a specific account they can use for signing in and authorizing your app.

Parameters

2. Users are redirected back to your site by GitHub

If the user accepts your request, GitHub Enterprise redirects back to your site with a temporary code in a code parameter as well as the state you provided in the previous step in a state parameter. The temporary code will expire after 10 minutes. If the states don't match, then a third party created the request, and you should abort the process.

Exchange this code for an access token:

POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/oauth/access_token

Parameters

Response

By default, the response takes the following form:

access_token=e72e16c7e42f292c6912e7710c838347ae178b4a&token_type=bearer

You can also receive the content in different formats depending on the Accept header:

Accept: application/json
{"access_token":"e72e16c7e42f292c6912e7710c838347ae178b4a", "scope":"repo,gist", "token_type":"bearer"}

Accept: application/xml
<OAuth>
  <token_type>bearer</token_type>
  <scope>repo,gist</scope>
  <access_token>e72e16c7e42f292c6912e7710c838347ae178b4a</access_token>
</OAuth>

3. Use the access token to access the API

The access token allows you to make requests to the API on a behalf of a user.

Authorization: token OAUTH-TOKEN
GET http(s)://[hostname]/api/v3/user

For example, in curl you can set the Authorization header like this:

curl -H "Authorization: token OAUTH-TOKEN" http(s)://[hostname]/api/v3/user

Device flow

The device flow allows you to authorize users for a headless app, such as a CLI tool or Git credential manager.

Overview of the device flow

1. Your app requests device and user verification codes and gets the authorization URL where the user will enter the user verification code.
2. The app prompts the user to enter a user verification code at https://github.com/login/device.
3. The app polls for the user authentication status. Once the user has authorized the device, the app will be able to make API calls with a new access token.

Step 1: App requests the device and user verification codes from GitHub

POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/device/code

Your app must request a user verification code and verification URL that the app will use to prompt the user to authenticate in the next step. This request also returns a device verification code that the app must use to receive an access token and check the status of user authentication.

Input Parameters

Response

{
  "device_code": "3584d83530557fdd1f46af8289938c8ef79f9dc5",
  "user_code": "WDJB-MJHT",
  "verification_uri": "http(s)://[hostname]/login/device",
  "expires_in": 900,
  "interval": 5
}

Response parameters

Step 2: Prompt the user to enter the user code in a browser

Your device will show the user verification code and prompt the user to enter the code at https://github.com/login/device.

Step 3: App polls GitHub to check if the user authorized the device

POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/oauth/access_token

Your app will make device authorization requests that poll POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/oauth/access_token, until the device and user codes expire or the user has successfully authorized the app with a valid user code. The app must use the minimum polling interval retrieved in step 1 to avoid rate limit errors. For more information, see "Rate limits for the device flow."

The user must enter a valid code within 15 minutes (or 900 seconds). After 15 minutes, you will need to request a new device authorization code with POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/device/code.

Once the user has authorized, the app will receive an access token that can be used to make requests to the API on behalf of a user.

Input parameters

Response

{
 "access_token": "e72e16c7e42f292c6912e7710c838347ae178b4a",
  "token_type": "bearer",
  "scope": "user"
}

Rate limits for the device flow

When a user submits the verification code on the browser, there is a there is a rate limit of 50 submissions in an hour per application.

If you make more than one access token request (POST http(s)://[hostname]/login/oauth/access_token) within the required minimum timeframe between requests (or interval), you'll hit the rate limit and receive a slow_down error response. The slow_down error response adds 5 seconds to the last interval. For more information, see the Errors for the device flow.

Error codes for the device flow

For more information, see the "OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant."

Non-Web application flow

Non-web authentication is available for limited situations like testing. If you need to, you can use Basic Authentication to create a personal access token using your Personal access tokens settings page. This technique enables the user to revoke access at any time.

Redirect URLs

The redirect_uri parameter is optional. If left out, GitHub will redirect users to the callback URL configured in the OAuth Application settings. If provided, the redirect URL's host and port must exactly match the callback URL. The redirect URL's path must reference a subdirectory of the callback URL.

CALLBACK: http://example.com/path

GOOD: http://example.com/path
GOOD: http://example.com/path/subdir/other
BAD:  http://example.com/bar
BAD:  http://example.com/
BAD:  http://example.com:8080/path
BAD:  http://oauth.example.com:8080/path
BAD:  http://example.org

Localhost redirect urls

The optional redirect_uri parameter can also be used for localhost URLs. If the application specifies a localhost URL and a port, then after authorizing the application users will be redirected to the provided URL and port. The redirect_uri does not need to match the port specified in the callback url for the app.

For the http://localhost/path callback URL, you can use this redirect_uri:

http://localhost:1234/path

Creating multiple tokens for OAuth Apps

You can create multiple tokens for a user/application/scope combination to create tokens for specific use cases.

This is useful if your OAuth App supports one workflow that uses GitHub for sign-in and only requires basic user information. Another workflow may require access to a user's private repositories. Using multiple tokens, your OAuth App can perform the web flow for each use case, requesting only the scopes needed. If a user only uses your application to sign in, they are never required to grant your OAuth App access to their private repositories.

There is a limit to the number of tokens that are issued per user/application/scope combination. If your application requests enough tokens to go over one of the limits, older tokens with the same scope being requested will stop working.

Directing users to review their access

You can link to authorization information for an OAuth App so that users can review and revoke their application authorizations.

To build this link, you'll need your OAuth Apps client_id that you received from GitHub when you registered the application.

http(s)://[hostname]/settings/connections/applications/:client_id

Troubleshooting

• "Troubleshooting authorization request errors"

• "Troubleshooting OAuth App access token request errors"

• "Device flow errors"