Bearer Authentication

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1

Hey There,

I am wondering if anyone knows the best way to process bearer token authentication?

Effectively I need to:

POST {{url}}/oauth/token

with header authentication and body user/pass/type, then it returns a bearer token (example).

  {
    "token_type": "Bearer",
    "expires_in": 3600,
    "access_token": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdWQiOiI5ZDIxYmUwYS01MzE5LTRkZDAtOTQ4Mi0zOTM5Njg0YzY3ODIiLCJqdGkiOiIyMTE0MTFlYWExZGU1YTRlNzcxOGRmODk1N2M2YWQyNzAzZTk0YzBhMjJjNDZlNTM4NWZmMTM0N2FjNDhiYzFkNjRlOTU2ODE0OWZjZmQ3NiIsImlhdCI6MTcyNzc1OTEzOS44MzI2NjEsIm5iZiI6MTcyNzc1OTEzOS44MzI2NjQsImV4cCI6MTcyNzc2MjczOS44MDQwMDYsInN1YiI6IjEiLCJzY29wZXMiOltdfQ.YTbSjKgZg4v8D2n11Az9TqjiJVvTyQPl-8BoqqkdfGhUlkMZ4DZ-JT49m7KPh-Y6slX8qzr_ZMryeKhbN_avR0lRxRt-xPkuXUbvGld-TpWHbsJ6eR7QK2UGyzMhM_CRQQH9MYNx8tIcNTON_mmp6DcqV9GcHzP20rUfkUIByvwaZF36l1rx3RosRjttvG1Jff9SeFcaHAwpy8uk9iu0nplOS-Se88Se8Ir8TU_kEZfUudwPw-7GEsQ2Bz9Z_AuZheVvBt8uPjlCGGjfGl7dcG_wy4JYkb3fyKe8IqTcTb6vsjC24pvtijkjaJljUaePzaPp5k5EdGXxLtYkAhxDBSmaxSicVesh-EHbqJHQmwc_CPN9K6tiuSv6YmGEfau4Mn6ryULDyjngvvN_gvAj7-F2cwk76pZWfcVMPazG40CfSyrfWG8xv7kuYNiZLQ48k8oahDdqoYK9a0MhBXmdq4AO6OKKPhp9_rS86ecB1vWNqKOJg3pnDq9cgsR26vXADrpJiL4ETDl3djR4sBGpBaqUstSC79H91yGApxfOvUWVxyA7ou_dEoryMaW6iVzwEv5-hZG9c3CoNEupvd_YeFjFSby-eBQ8AjubZm_B_NUbcJq7G4XoV2K1Gzpvfcvywb9F5cFANX-aoBLESauW8kPi7MA3n2QrXpadtmgBSD4",
    "refresh_token": "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"
  }

I need the access_token for subsequent calls, and then can recall the api once it has expired to get new access_token (either via refresh_token or user/pass").

I feel like it is a custom auth, like this:

{
	"headers": {
		"Authorization": "Basic {{bearer}}",
		"Content-Type": "application/json"
	},
  "body": {
    "username" : "",
    "password" : "",
    "grant_type": "password"
 }
}

but not sure where the access_token get stored or how its knows the access_token is active.

Cheers

Chris

2

this is the docs screenshot

Screenshot 2025-04-29 at 2.13.45 pm
Screenshot 2025-04-29 at 2.13.45 pm1796×1620 274 KB

or here Authentication APIs | UnoPim Documentation

3

Hi,
I am not sure not understand your issue.

Once you get the access_token and the refresh_token, you have to use the access_token to call other api endpoints.
Once the access_token expires, you have to get a new one with the refresh_token.

4

Hey,

Just so I am clear (a little new with n8n auth), where does it save the access_token from the response?

How does it know the access_token is still valid in a subsequent flow?

5

it does not save it by default. That’s your responsibility to parse the answer, extract the access_token and use it in subsequent nodes.

If you want to share it across multiple workflows or between multiple runs of the same workflows, you can store it in an external DB or in a file.

If you are on the Enterprise plan, you can use the custom variables feature Create custom variables | n8n Docs or an external secrets store External secrets | n8n Docs

6

hey @anthony31

thanks for your reply, really appreciate it.

Understood, we are on CE so we need to effectively parse the json response and then send to a datastore (aka bigquery), then query the datastore to get the value for subsequent calls.

then in a flow, if we have a api response for wrong JWT token, then run the sub-process again and retry.