The Admin API is protected by cryptographic keys. Learn how to generate a valid JWT to authorize your request in this article.
Accessing the Admin API GraphQL endpoint
Accessing the Admin API GraphQL endpoint requires your server to generate a valid JWT and include it as Authorization HTTP header.
Obtaining the private key for signing JWT
Go to Advanced -> Admin API
Click Download to download the private key. Make it available to your server.
Copy the key ID. Make it available to your server.
Generating the JWT with the private key
Sample code to generate the JWT
Here is the sample code on how to generate the JWT with the private key.
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"os"
"time"
"github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jwa"
"github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jwk"
"github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jws"
"github.com/lestrrat-go/jwx/v2/jwt"
)
// Replace "myapp" with your project ID here.
// It is the first part of your Authgear endpoint.
// e.g. The project ID is "myapp" for "https://myapp.authgear.cloud"
const ProjectID = "myapp"
// Replace "mykid" with the key ID you see in the portal.
const KeyID = "mykid"
func main() {
// Replace the following call with your own way to get the private key.
f, err := os.Open("private-key.pem")
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer f.Close()
jwkSet, err := jwk.ParseReader(f, jwk.WithPEM(true))
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
key, _ := jwkSet.Key(0)
key.Set("kid", KeyID)
now := time.Now().UTC()
payload := jwt.New()
_ = payload.Set(jwt.AudienceKey, ProjectID)
_ = payload.Set(jwt.IssuedAtKey, now.Unix())
_ = payload.Set(jwt.ExpirationKey, now.Add(5*time.Minute).Unix())
// The alg MUST be RS256.
alg := jwa.RS256
hdr := jws.NewHeaders()
hdr.Set("typ", "JWT")
buf, err := json.Marshal(payload)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
token, err := jws.Sign(buf, jws.WithKey(alg, key, jws.WithProtectedHeaders(hdr)))
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%v\n", string(token))
}
import jwt
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
private_key = open("private-key.pem", "r").read()
# Replace "myapp" with your project ID here.
# It is the first part of your Authgear endpoint.
# e.g. The project ID is "myapp" for "https://myapp.authgear.cloud"
PROJECT_ID = "myapp"
# Replace "mykid" with the key ID you see in the portal.
KEY_ID = "mykid"
now = datetime.now()
payload = {
"aud": [PROJECT_ID],
"iat": int(now.timestamp()),
"exp": int((now + timedelta(minutes=5)).timestamp()),
}
token = jwt.encode(
payload,
private_key,
"RS256",
headers={
"kid": KEY_ID,
},
)
print(token)
This example uses Express.js and the JsonWebToken package. So, first install both packages using the following commands:
npm install express
and
npm install jsonwebtoken
Here's the code for the Express.js app that generates the JWT:
const express = require("express");
const node_jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
const fs = require('fs');
const app = express();
const port = 3002;
app.get('/', (request, response) => {
// Your project ID is the first part of your Authgear endpoint.
// e.g. The project ID is "myapp" for "https://myapp.authgear.cloud"
// You can find your key ID in the Portal.
const project_id = ""; //Place your Authgear project id
const key_id = ""; // Place your Authgear key ID
const expiresAt = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + (60 * 5); //the current value means token will expire in 5 minutes.
//Payload to include in JWT
const claims = {
aud: project_id,
iat: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000),
exp: expiresAt
}
const privateKey = fs.readFileSync("key.pem"); //Read value from the downloaded key file
const header = {"typ": "JWT", "kid": key_id, "alg": "RS256"}
const jwt = node_jwt.sign(claims, privateKey, { header: header });
response.send("Generated JWT: " + jwt);
});
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log("server started on port " + port);
});
The following example is a basic Spring Boot application.
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.security.KeyFactory;
import java.security.PrivateKey;
import java.security.spec.PKCS8EncodedKeySpec;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Base64;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts;
@SpringBootApplication
@RestController
public class DemoApplication {
private static PrivateKey privateKey;
static {
try {
// Load the private key from the PEM file (assuming it's in the classpath)
ClassPathResource resource = new ClassPathResource("key.pem"); // store your downloaded Admin API key.pem in
// the resources folder.
InputStream inputStream = resource.getInputStream();
byte[] keyBytes = FileCopyUtils.copyToByteArray(inputStream);
String privateKeyPEM = new String(keyBytes, "UTF-8");
// Clean PEM string (remove header, footer, and newlines)
privateKeyPEM = privateKeyPEM
.replace("-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----", "")
.replace("-----END PRIVATE KEY-----", "")
.replaceAll("\\n", "");
// Decode the PEM string to get the raw key bytes
byte[] decodedKey = Base64.getDecoder().decode(privateKeyPEM);
// Generate the private key object from the bytes
KeyFactory keyFactory = KeyFactory.getInstance("RSA"); // Use RSA
PKCS8EncodedKeySpec keySpec = new PKCS8EncodedKeySpec(decodedKey);
privateKey = keyFactory.generatePrivate(keySpec);
} catch (Exception e) {
// Handle the exception appropriately (e.g., log, throw a more specific
// exception)
System.err.println("Error loading or parsing private key: " + e.getMessage());
throw new RuntimeException("Failed to initialize private key", e);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
}
@GetMapping("/generateJwt")
public String generateJwt() {
String kid = ""; // The key ID for your Admin API Key. Can be found in
// Authgear Portal under Advanced > Admin API.
String projectId = ""; // Your Authgear project ID. You can find this in Authgear Portal.
int expirationInMinutes = 15; // how long the JWT will be valid for.
Date now = new Date();
Date expiration = new Date(now.getTime() + 30 * expirationInMinutes * 1000);
Map<String, Object> claims = new HashMap<>();
claims.put("aud", projectId);
claims.put("iat", now);
claims.put("exp", expiration);
String jwt = Jwts.builder()
.header()
.add("kid", kid)
.and()
.claims(claims)
.signWith(privateKey, Jwts.SIG.RS256)
.compact();
return "{\"jwt\": \"" + jwt + "\"}";
}
}
First, install the Firebase PHP JWT package using this command:
composer require firebase/php-jwt
The PHP code for generating JWT:
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use Firebase\JWT\JWT;
// Your project ID is the first part of your Authgear endpoint.
// e.g. The project ID is "myapp" for "https://myapp.authgear.cloud"
// You can find your key ID in the Portal.
$project_id = ""; // Place your Authgear project id
$key_id = ""; // Place your Authgear key ID
$expiresAt = time() + (60*5); //the current value means token will expire in 5 minutes.
//Payload to include in JWT
$claims = [
"aud" => $project_id,
"iat" => time(),
"exp" => $expiresAt
];
$privateKey = file_get_contents("./key.pem"); //Read value from the downloaded key file
$header = [
"typ" => "JWT",
"kid" => $key_id,
"alg" => "RS256"
];
$jwt = JWT::encode($claims, $privateKey, "RS256", null, $header);
echo $jwt;
After generating the JWT, you must include it in EVERY request you send to the Admin API endpoint. Here is how it looks like
Authorization: Bearer <JWT>
The header is the standard Authorization HTTP header. The token type MUST be Bearer.
Optional: Caching the JWT
As you can see in the sample code, you expiration time of the JWT is 5 minutes. You make it last longer and cache it to avoid generating it on every request.
Admin API Key rotation
You should regularly change the API key used to authenticate API requests. It enhances security by minimizing the impact of compromised keys.
To rotate the API key
Go to Portal > Advanced > Admin API
Under "List of Admin API keys", click "Generate new key pair"
At this point both keys can be used to authenticate the admin API requests.
Make sure all your systems is updated to use the new key