OAuth 2.0 Connect

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Authorize

To start the authorization flow you need to redirect the user to the authorization URL. It looks like this:

https://polar.sh/oauth2/authorize?
  response_type=code
  &client_id=CLIENT_ID
  &redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fcallback
  &scope=openid%20email

The parameters are the one described in the OpenID Connect specification. The most important ones are:

If you redirect the user to this URL, they’ll see a page asking them to grant access to their data, corresponding to the scopes you asked for.

If they allow it, they’ll be redirected to your redirect_uri with a code parameter in the query string. This code is a one-time code that you can exchange for an access token.

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Exchange code token

Once you have the authorization code, you can exchange it for an access token. To do so, you’ll need to make a POST request to the token endpoint. This call needs to be authenticated with the Client ID and Client Secret you got when creating the OAuth2 client.

Here is an example with cURL:

curl -X POST https://api.polar.sh/v1/oauth2/token \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  -d 'grant_type=authorization_code&code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE&client_id=CLIENT_ID&client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET&redirect_uri=https://example.com/callback'

You should get the following response:

{
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "access_token": "polar_at_XXX",
  "expires_in": 864000,
  "refresh_token": "polar_rt_XXX",
  "scope": "openid email",
  "id_token": "ID_TOKEN"
}

The access_token will allow you to make authenticated API requests on behalf of the user. The refresh_token is a long-lived token that you can use to get new access tokens when the current one expires. The id_token is a signed JWT token containing information about the user, as per the OpenID Connect specification.

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User vs Organization Access Tokens

We support the concept of access tokens at organization level. Contrary to the standard access tokens, those tokens are not tied to a user but to an organization. They can be used to make requests operating only on a specific organization data, improving privacy and security.

To ask for a organization access token, you need to add the parameter sub_type=organization to the authorization URL:

https://polar.sh/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=polar_ci_j3X95_MgfdSCeCd2qkFnUw&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fcallback&scope=openid%20email&sub_type=organization

At this point, the user will be prompted to select one of their organization before allowing access to their data.

The rest of the flow remains unchanged. The access token you’ll get will be tied to the selected organization.

Bear in mind that some endpoints might not support organization access tokens. Typically, user-specific endpoints like /v1/users/benefit will not work with organization access tokens.

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Public Clients

Public clients are clients where the Client Secret can’t be kept safe, as it would be accessible by the final user. This is the case for SPA, mobile applications, or any client running on the user’s device.

In this case, and only if the client is configured as a Public Client, the request to the token endpoint won’t require the client_secret parameter. However, the PKCE method will be required to maximize security.

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Make authenticated requests

Once you have an access token, either from a Personal Access Token or from the OpenID Connect flow, you can make authenticated requests to the API. Here is a simple example with cURL:

curl -X GET https://api.polar.sh/v1/oauth2/userinfo \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer polar_at_XXX'