Developer Portal for YouTrack and Hub Help

OAuth 2.0 Authorization

To access YouTrack resources with the REST API using OAuth 2.0, you need to log in, authorize, and obtain an access token for YouTrack. Authorization is provided by the Hub service.

We only recommend that you use OAuth 2.0 when your application requires client-side authentication. Otherwise, you're better off using token-based authorization. For more information, see Permanent Token Authorization.

  • If your YouTrack Server installation is connected to an external Hub service, then you can use any OAuth 2.0 authorization flow that is supported by Hub. The built-in Hub service only supports implicit authorization grants. External Hub installations support a wider range of authorization methods. For details, refer to the Hub documentation.

  • The Hub service that is connected to a YouTrack Cloud instance only supports implicit authorization grants.

To use implicit OAuth 2.0 authorization, your client application must be publicly available over the internet. Such applications are usually written in JavaScript and run in a web browser.

Endpoints

The built-in Hub service uses the following OAuth 2.0 endpoints:

Endpoint

URL

Authentication

<Hub service URL>/api/rest/oauth2/auth

Token

<Hub service URL>/api/rest/oauth2/token
  • For a YouTrack Server installation, the <Hub service URL> is the access point for the Hub service in your network environment. For YouTrack Server installations, the service is accessible from your YouTrack Base URL appended with the path /hub. For example, www.company-youtrack.com/hub.

    You can find the Base URL for your installation on the Global Settings page.

  • For a YouTrack Cloud instance, the <Hub service URL> is the access point for the Hub service in your network environment. For YouTrack Cloud, the service is accessible when you replace the /youtrack path in your YouTrack Base URL with /hub. For example, company-domain.youtrack.cloud/hub.

    You can find the Base URL for your instance on the Domain Settings page.

Implicit Authorization

YouTrack supports OAuth 2.0 authorization with implicit authorization as specified in the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework.

To obtain an access token from YouTrack, you need to provide values for the following parameters:

Requests

To start authentication, redirect the browser to the authorization endpoint:

${Hub service URL}/api/rest/oauth2/auth?response_type=token&state=${State}&redirect_uri=${Client redirect URI}&request_credentials=${Request credentials mode}&client_id=${Client service ID}&scope=${Scope}

Example:

https://www.company-youtrack.com/hub/api/rest/oauth2/auth?response_type=token&state=9b8fdea0-fc3a-410c-9577-5dee1ae028da&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fmyservice.company.com%2Fauthorized&request_credentials=skip&client_id=98071167-004c-4ddf-ba37-5d4599fdf319&scope=0-0-0-0-0%2098071167-004c-4ddf-ba37-5d4599fdf319

To obtain an access token from YouTrack, you need to provide values for the following parameters in your authorization requests:

Parameter

Description

response_type

Specifies the grant type in an OAuth 2.0 request. For implicit grant, use token.

state

An identifier for the current application state. For example, it can be a key for a local storage object that contains information about the location of the current user in the client application.

redirect_uri

A URI in your client application that can handle responses from Hub.

request_credentials

A parameter that determines whether the user should be asked to log in. The following values are recognized:

  • skip

    — use when the client application allows anonymous access.

    • If the user is already logged in to Hub, the user is granted access to the client application.

    • If the user is not logged in to Hub and the guest account is not banned, the user is granted access to the client application as a guest.

    • If the user is not logged in to Hub and the guest account is banned, the user is redirected to the login page.

  • silent — same as skip, but redirects the user to the client application in all cases. If the guest account is banned, the user is redirected to the client application with an authentication error.

  • required — logs the user out of Hub and redirects them to the login page. Use as a response to a logout request in the client application.

  • default

    — use when the client application does not allow anonymous access.

    • If the user is already logged in to Hub, the user is granted access to the client application.

    • If the user is not logged in to Hub, the user is redirected to the login page.

client_id

The ID of the YouTrack service as registered in the built-in Hub service. To get the YouTrack service ID, open the Administration > Hub Integration page:

Oauth yt service id

scope

The access scope in which your API requests are processed. Use the symbolic name of the YouTrack service in the built-in Hub: YouTrack.

Responses

The client service should be able to handle responses from Hub at the URL that is passed as the redirect_uri. Response parameters are passed after a hash sign in the URL. As a result, these parameters are not sent to the server and cannot be intercepted by a malefactor.

If the resource owner grants the access request, Hub issues an access token and delivers it to the client by adding the following parameters to the fragment component of the redirect URI using the "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" format:

Parameter

Description

access_token

The access token issued by Hub.

token_type

The type of the token that was issued by Hub. The value is case insensitive.

expires_in

The lifetime of the access token, in seconds. For example, 3600 denotes that the access token expires one hour from the time the response was generated.

scope

Optional if identical to the scope requested by the client; otherwise, required. The scope of the access token in Hub is the service_id.

state

Required if the state parameter was specified in the client authorization request. The exact value received from the client.

Note that the authorization server (Hub) does not issue a refresh token.

For example, the Hub server redirects the user-agent by sending the following HTTP response:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found Location: http://myservice.company.com/authorized#access_token=1443459450185.0-0-0-0-0.98071167-004c-4ddf-ba37-5d4599fdf319.0-0-0-0-0%3B1.MCwCFC%2FYWvLjHdzOdpLleDLITJn4Mz9rAhRklCoZ2dlMkh2aCd1K5QQ89ibsxg%3D%3D&token_type=Bearer&expires_in=3600&scope=0-0-0-0-0%2098071167-004c-4ddf-ba37-5d4599fdf319&state=9b8fdea0-fc3a-410c-9577-5dee1ae028da

OAuth 2.0 Errors

If the request fails due to a missing, invalid, or mismatching redirect URI, or if the client identifier is missing or invalid, the Hub server informs the resource owner of the error and does not automatically redirect the user-agent to the invalid redirection URI.

If the resource owner denies the access request or if the request fails for reasons other than a missing or invalid redirection URI, the authorization server informs the client by adding the following parameters to the fragment component of the redirect URI using the "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" format:

Parameter

Description

error

A single ASCII [USASCII] error code. For a list of possible errors, see Authorization Response Errors and Token Response Errors.

error_description

Human-readable ASCII [USASCII] text providing additional information, used to help the client developer understand what went wrong.

error_uri

A URI that identifies a human-readable web page with information about the error, used to provide the client developer with additional information.

state

Required if a "state" parameter was present in the client authorization request. The exact value received from the client.

For example, Hub redirects the user-agent by sending the following HTTP response:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found Location: https://myservice.company.com/cb#error=access_denied&state=xyz

Authorization Response Errors

The following errors can be returned by a request to the authorization endpoint.

Error

Description

Solution

invalid_request

The authorization request to Hub is missing a required parameter, includes an invalid parameter value, includes a parameter more than once, or is otherwise malformed.

Verify that all of the parameters are correct, that the provided service_id exists, and so on.

unauthorized_client

Either the client is not authorized to request an authorization code using this method or redirect_URI of the service either is incorrect or missing.

  1. Make sure the redirect_uri is correct and properly registered as one of the service's redirect URIs.

  2. Make sure your service provides at least one redirect_uri in Hub.

access_denied

The resource owner or Hub denied the request.

Verify that you are using the correct value for the scope parameter.

unsupported_response_type

Hub does not support obtaining an authorization code using this method.

Verify that you have set the value for the response_type to token.

invalid_scope

The scope for which authorization is requested, does not match any registered service.

Make sure that request is correct.

server_error

The Hub service encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request. (This error code is needed because a 500 Internal Server Error HTTP status code cannot be returned to the client with an HTTP redirect.)

The connection between YouTrack and the Hub service may be out of sync. Open the Hub Integration page in YouTrack and run diagnostics.

temporarily_unavailable

The authorization server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. (This error code is needed because a 503 Service Unavailable HTTP status code cannot be returned to the client with an HTTP redirect.)

The connection between YouTrack and the Hub service may be out of sync. Open the Hub Integration page in YouTrack and run diagnostics.

Token Response Errors

The following errors can be returned by a request to the token endpoint. For more information, read the definition of each error as defined in the RFC6749 standard.

Error

Description

Solution

invalid_request

The request is missing a required parameter, includes an unsupported parameter value (other than grant type), repeats a parameter, includes multiple credentials, utilizes more than one mechanism for authenticating the client, or is otherwise malformed.

Check the response header, then check if the request is correct.

invalid_client

Client authentication failed. For example, the client is unknown, no client authentication included, or the authentication method is unsupported.

Check the value for the client_id parameter.

unsupported_grant_type

The authorization grant type is not supported by Hub.

Verify that you have set the value for the response_type to token.

invalid_scope

The scope to which you are requiring access token does not match any registered service.

Verify that you are using the correct value for the scope parameter.

Last modified: 7 October 2024