Authentication

Authentication is the act of verifying a user's identity. This is done through the verification of credentials like a username and password or unique token. Authentication (sometimes called auth/c) is distinct from authorization (auth/z) which is the act of verifying a previously authenticated user's permissions to perform certain tasks.

Introduction

Vapor's Authentication API provides support for authenticating a user via the Authorization header, using Basic and Bearer. It also supports authenticating a user via the data decoded from the Content API.

Authentication is implemented by creating an Authenticator which contains the verification logic. An authenticator can be used to protect individual route groups or an entire app. The following authenticator helpers ship with Vapor:

Protocol	Description
RequestAuthenticator/AsyncRequestAuthenticator	Base authenticator capable of creating middleware.
BasicAuthenticator/AsyncBasicAuthenticator	Authenticates Basic authorization header.
BearerAuthenticator/AsyncBearerAuthenticator	Authenticates Bearer authorization header.
CredentialsAuthenticator/AsyncCredentialsAuthenticator	Authenticates a credentials payload from the request body.

If authentication is successful, the authenticator adds the verified user to req.auth. This user can then be accessed using req.auth.get(_:) in routes protected by the authenticator. If authentication fails, the user is not added to req.auth and any attempts to access it will fail.

Authenticatable

To use the Authentication API, you first need a user type that conforms to Authenticatable. This can be a struct, class, or even a Fluent Model. The following examples assume this simple User struct that has one property: name.

import Vapor

struct User: Authenticatable {
    var name: String
}

Each example below will use an instance of an authenticator which we created. In these examples, we've called it UserAuthenticator.

Route

Authenticators are middleware and can be used for protecting routes.

let protected = app.grouped(UserAuthenticator())
protected.get("me") { req -> String in
    try req.auth.require(User.self).name
}

req.auth.require is used to fetch the authenticated User. If authentication failed, this method will throw an error, protecting the route.

Guard Middleware

You can also use GuardMiddleware in your route group to ensure that a user has been authenticated before reaching your route handler.

let protected = app.grouped(UserAuthenticator())
    .grouped(User.guardMiddleware())

Requiring authentication is not done by the authenticator middleware to allow for composition of authenticators. Read more about composition below.

Basic

Basic authentication sends a username and password in the Authorization header. The username and password are concatenated with a colon (e.g. test:secret), base-64 encoded, and prefixed with "Basic ". The following example request encodes the username test with password secret.

GET /me HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic dGVzdDpzZWNyZXQ=

Basic authentication is typically used once to log a user in and generate a token. This minimizes how frequently the user's sensitive password must be sent. You should never send Basic authorization over a plaintext or unverified TLS connection.

To implement Basic authentication in your app, create a new authenticator conforming to BasicAuthenticator. Below is an example authenticator hard-coded to verify the request from above.

import Vapor

struct UserAuthenticator: BasicAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User

    func authenticate(
        basic: BasicAuthorization,
        for request: Request
    ) -> EventLoopFuture<Void> {
        if basic.username == "test" && basic.password == "secret" {
            request.auth.login(User(name: "Vapor"))
        }
        return request.eventLoop.makeSucceededFuture(())
   }
}

If you're using async/await you can use AsyncBasicAuthenticator instead:

import Vapor

struct UserAuthenticator: AsyncBasicAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User

    func authenticate(
        basic: BasicAuthorization,
        for request: Request
    ) async throws {
        if basic.username == "test" && basic.password == "secret" {
            request.auth.login(User(name: "Vapor"))
        }
   }
}

This protocol requires you to implement authenticate(basic:for:) which will be called when an incoming request contains the Authorization: Basic ... header. A BasicAuthorization struct containing the username and password is passed to the method.

In this test authenticator, the username and password are tested against hard-coded values. In a real authenticator, you might check against a database or external API. This is why the authenticate method allows you to return a future.

Tip

Passwords should never be stored in a database as plaintext. Always use password hashes for comparison.

If the authentication parameters are correct, in this case matching the hard-coded values, a User named Vapor is logged in. If the authentication parameters do not match, no user is logged in, which signifies authentication failed.

If you add this authenticator to your app, and test the route defined above, you should see the name "Vapor" returned for a successful login. If the credentials are not correct, you should see a 401 Unauthorized error.

Bearer

Bearer authentication sends a token in the Authorization header. The token is prefixed with "Bearer ". The following example request sends the token foo.

GET /me HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer foo

Bearer authentication is commonly used for authentication of API endpoints. The user typically requests a Bearer token by sending credentials like a username and password to a login endpoint. This token may last minutes or days depending on the application's needs.

As long as the token is valid, the user can use it in place of his or her credentials to authenticate against the API. If the token becomes invalid, a new one can be generated using the login endpoint.

To implement Bearer authentication in your app, create a new authenticator conforming to BearerAuthenticator. Below is an example authenticator hard-coded to verify the request from above.

import Vapor

struct UserAuthenticator: BearerAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User

    func authenticate(
        bearer: BearerAuthorization,
        for request: Request
    ) -> EventLoopFuture<Void> {
       if bearer.token == "foo" {
           request.auth.login(User(name: "Vapor"))
       }
       return request.eventLoop.makeSucceededFuture(())
   }
}

If you're using async/await you can use AsyncBearerAuthenticator instead:

import Vapor

struct UserAuthenticator: AsyncBearerAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User

    func authenticate(
        bearer: BearerAuthorization,
        for request: Request
    ) async throws {
       if bearer.token == "foo" {
           request.auth.login(User(name: "Vapor"))
       }
   }
}

This protocol requires you to implement authenticate(bearer:for:) which will be called when an incoming request contains the Authorization: Bearer ... header. A BearerAuthorization struct containing the token is passed to the method.

In this test authenticator, the token is tested against a hard-coded value. In a real authenticator, you might verify the token by checking against a database or using cryptographic measures, like is done with JWT. This is why the authenticate method allows you to return a future.

Tip

When implementing token verification, it's important to consider horizontal scalability. If your application needs to handle many users concurrently, authentication can be a potential bottleneck. Consider how your design will scale across multiple instances of your application running at once.

If the authentication parameters are correct, in this case matching the hard-coded value, a User named Vapor is logged in. If the authentication parameters do not match, no user is logged in, which signifies authentication failed.

If you add this authenticator to your app, and test the route defined above, you should see the name "Vapor" returned for a successful login. If the credentials are not correct, you should see a 401 Unauthorized error.

Composition

Multiple authenticators can be composed (combined together) to create more complex endpoint authentication. Since an authenticator middleware will not reject the request if authentication fails, more than one of these middleware can be chained together. Authenticators can be composed in two key ways.

Composing Methods

The first method of authentication composition is chaining more than one authenticator for the same user type. Take the following example:

app.grouped(UserPasswordAuthenticator())
    .grouped(UserTokenAuthenticator())
    .grouped(User.guardMiddleware())
    .post("login") 
{ req in
    let user = try req.auth.require(User.self)
    // Do something with user.
}

This example assumes two authenticators UserPasswordAuthenticator and UserTokenAuthenticator that both authenticate User. Both of these authenticators are added to the route group. Finally, GuardMiddleware is added after the authenticators to require that User was successfully authenticated.

This composition of authenticators results in a route that can be accessed by either password or token. Such a route could allow a user to login and generate a token, then continue to use that token to generate new tokens.

Composing Users

The second method of authentication composition is chaining authenticators for different user types. Take the following example:

app.grouped(AdminAuthenticator())
    .grouped(UserAuthenticator())
    .get("secure") 
{ req in
    guard req.auth.has(Admin.self) || req.auth.has(User.self) else {
        throw Abort(.unauthorized)
    }
    // Do something.
}

This example assumes two authenticators AdminAuthenticator and UserAuthenticator that authenticate Admin and User, respectively. Both of these authenticators are added to the route group. Instead of using GuardMiddleware, a check in the route handler is added to see if either Admin or User were authenticated. If not, an error is thrown.

This composition of authenticators results in a route that can be accessed by two different types of users with potentially different methods of authentication. Such a route could allow for normal user authentication while still giving access to a super-user.

Manual

You can also handle authentication manually using req.auth. This is especially useful for testing.

To manually log a user in, use req.auth.login(_:). Any Authenticatable user can be passed to this method.

req.auth.login(User(name: "Vapor"))

To get the authenticated user, use req.auth.require(_:)

let user: User = try req.auth.require(User.self)
print(user.name) // String

You can also use req.auth.get(_:) if you don't want to automatically throw an error when authentication fails.

let user = req.auth.get(User.self)
print(user?.name) // String?

To unauthenticate a user, pass the user type to req.auth.logout(_:).

req.auth.logout(User.self)

Fluent

Fluent defines two protocols ModelAuthenticatable and ModelTokenAuthenticatable which can be added to your existing models. Conforming your models to these protocols allows for the creation of authenticators for protecting endpoints.

ModelTokenAuthenticatable authenticates with a Bearer token. This is what you use to protect most of your endpoints. ModelAuthenticatable authenticates with username and password and is used by a single endpoint for generating tokens.

This guide assumes you are familiar with Fluent and have successfully configured your app to use a database. If you are new to Fluent, start with the overview.

User

To start, you will need a model representing the user that will be authenticated. For this guide, we'll be using the following model, but you are free to use an existing model.

import Fluent
import Vapor

final class User: Model, Content {
    static let schema = "users"

    @ID(key: .id)
    var id: UUID?

    @Field(key: "name")
    var name: String

    @Field(key: "email")
    var email: String

    @Field(key: "password_hash")
    var passwordHash: String

    init() { }

    init(id: UUID? = nil, name: String, email: String, passwordHash: String) {
        self.id = id
        self.name = name
        self.email = email
        self.passwordHash = passwordHash
    }
}

The model must be able to store a username, in this case an email, and a password hash. We also set email to be a unique field, to avoid duplicate users. The corresponding migration for this example model is here:

import Fluent
import Vapor

extension User {
    struct Migration: AsyncMigration {
        var name: String { "CreateUser" }

        func prepare(on database: Database) async throws {
            try await database.schema("users")
                .id()
                .field("name", .string, .required)
                .field("email", .string, .required)
                .field("password_hash", .string, .required)
                .unique(on: "email")
                .create()
        }

        func revert(on database: Database) async throws {
            try await database.schema("users").delete()
        }
    }
}

Don't forget to add the migration to app.migrations.

app.migrations.add(User.Migration())

Tip

Because email addresses are not case sensitive, you may want to add a Middleware that coerces the email address to lowercase before saving it to the database. Be aware, though, that ModelAuthenticatable uses a case sensitive comparison, so if you do this you'll want to make sure the user's input is all lower case, either with case coercion in the client, or with a custom authenticator.

The first thing you will need is an endpoint to create new users. Let's use POST /users. Create a Content struct representing the data this endpoint expects.

import Vapor

extension User {
    struct Create: Content {
        var name: String
        var email: String
        var password: String
        var confirmPassword: String
    }
}

If you like, you can conform this struct to Validatable to add validation requirements.

import Vapor

extension User.Create: Validatable {
    static func validations(_ validations: inout Validations) {
        validations.add("name", as: String.self, is: !.empty)
        validations.add("email", as: String.self, is: .email)
        validations.add("password", as: String.self, is: .count(8...))
    }
}

Now you can create the POST /users endpoint.

app.post("users") { req async throws -> User in
    try User.Create.validate(content: req)
    let create = try req.content.decode(User.Create.self)
    guard create.password == create.confirmPassword else {
        throw Abort(.badRequest, reason: "Passwords did not match")
    }
    let user = try User(
        name: create.name,
        email: create.email,
        passwordHash: Bcrypt.hash(create.password)
    )
    try await user.save(on: req.db)
    return user
}

This endpoint validates the incoming request, decodes the User.Create struct, and checks that the passwords match. It then uses the decoded data to create a new User and saves it to the database. The plaintext password is hashed using Bcrypt before saving to the database.

Build and run the project, making sure to migrate the database first, then use the following request to create a new user.

POST /users HTTP/1.1
Content-Length: 97
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "name": "Vapor",
    "email": "test@vapor.codes",
    "password": "secret42",
    "confirmPassword": "secret42"
}

Model Authenticatable

Now that you have a user model and an endpoint to create new users, let's conform the model to ModelAuthenticatable. This will allow for the model to be authenticated using username and password.

import Fluent
import Vapor

extension User: ModelAuthenticatable {
    static let usernameKey = \User.$email
    static let passwordHashKey = \User.$passwordHash

    func verify(password: String) throws -> Bool {
        try Bcrypt.verify(password, created: self.passwordHash)
    }
}

This extension adds ModelAuthenticatable conformance to User. The first two properties specify which fields should be used for storing the username and password hash respectively. The \ notation creates a key path to the fields that Fluent can use to access them.

The last requirement is a method for verifying plaintext passwords sent in the Basic authentication header. Since we're using Bcrypt to hash the password during signup, we'll use Bcrypt to verify that the supplied password matches the stored password hash.

Now that the User conforms to ModelAuthenticatable, we can create an authenticator for protecting the login route.

let passwordProtected = app.grouped(User.authenticator())
passwordProtected.post("login") { req -> User in
    try req.auth.require(User.self)
}

ModelAuthenticatable adds a static method authenticator for creating an authenticator.

Test that this route works by sending the following request.

POST /login HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic dGVzdEB2YXBvci5jb2RlczpzZWNyZXQ0Mg==

This request passes the username test@vapor.codes and password secret42 via the Basic authentication header. You should see the previously created user returned.

While you could theoretically use Basic authentication to protect all of your endpoints, it's recommended to use a separate token instead. This minimizes how often you must send the user's sensitive password over the Internet. It also makes authentication much faster since you only need to perform password hashing during login.

User Token

Create a new model for representing user tokens.

import Fluent
import Vapor

final class UserToken: Model, Content {
    static let schema = "user_tokens"

    @ID(key: .id)
    var id: UUID?

    @Field(key: "value")
    var value: String

    @Parent(key: "user_id")
    var user: User

    init() { }

    init(id: UUID? = nil, value: String, userID: User.IDValue) {
        self.id = id
        self.value = value
        self.$user.id = userID
    }
}

This model must have a value field for storing the token's unique string. It must also have a parent-relation to the user model. You may add additional properties to this token as you see fit, such as an expiration date.

Next, create a migration for this model.

import Fluent

extension UserToken {
    struct Migration: AsyncMigration {
        var name: String { "CreateUserToken" }

        func prepare(on database: Database) async throws {
            try await database.schema("user_tokens")
                .id()
                .field("value", .string, .required)
                .field("user_id", .uuid, .required, .references("users", "id"))
                .unique(on: "value")
                .create()
        }

        func revert(on database: Database) async throws {
            try await database.schema("user_tokens").delete()
        }
    }
}

Notice that this migration makes the value field unique. It also creates a foreign key reference between the user_id field and the users table.

Don't forget to add the migration to app.migrations.

app.migrations.add(UserToken.Migration())

Finally, add a method on User for generating a new token. This method will be used during login.

extension User {
    func generateToken() throws -> UserToken {
        try .init(
            value: [UInt8].random(count: 16).base64, 
            userID: self.requireID()
        )
    }
}

Here we're using [UInt8].random(count:) to generate a random token value. For this example, 16 bytes, or 128 bits, of random data are being used. You can adjust this number as you see fit. The random data is then base-64 encoded to make it easy to transmit in HTTP headers.

Now that you can generate user tokens, update the POST /login route to create and return a token.

let passwordProtected = app.grouped(User.authenticator())
passwordProtected.post("login") { req async throws -> UserToken in
    let user = try req.auth.require(User.self)
    let token = try user.generateToken()
    try await token.save(on: req.db)
    return token
}

Test that this route works by using the same login request from above. You should now get a token upon logging in that looks something like:

8gtg300Jwdhc/Ffw784EXA==

Hold onto the token you get as we'll use it shortly.

Model Token Authenticatable

Conform UserToken to ModelTokenAuthenticatable. This will allow for tokens to authenticate your User model.

import Vapor
import Fluent

extension UserToken: ModelTokenAuthenticatable {
    static let valueKey = \UserToken.$value
    static let userKey = \UserToken.$user

    var isValid: Bool {
        true
    }
}

The first protocol requirement specifies which field stores the token's unique value. This is the value that will be sent in the Bearer authentication header. The second requirement specifies the parent-relation to the User model. This is how Fluent will look up the authenticated user.

The final requirement is an isValid boolean. If this is false, the token will be deleted from the database and the user will not be authenticated. For simplicity, we'll make the tokens eternal by hard-coding this to true.

Now that the token conforms to ModelTokenAuthenticatable, you can create an authenticator for protecting routes.

Create a new endpoint GET /me for getting the currently authenticated user.

let tokenProtected = app.grouped(UserToken.authenticator())
tokenProtected.get("me") { req -> User in
    try req.auth.require(User.self)
}

Similar to User, UserToken now has a static authenticator() method that can generate an authenticator. The authenticator will attempt to find a matching UserToken using the value provided in the Bearer authentication header. If it finds a match, it will fetch the related User and authenticate it.

Test that this route works by sending the following HTTP request where the token is the value you saved from the POST /login request.

GET /me HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer <token>

You should see the authenticated User returned.

Session

Vapor's Session API can be used to automatically persist user authentication between requests. This works by storing a unique identifier for the user in the request's session data after successful login. On subsequent requests, the user's identifier is fetched from the session and used to authenticate the user before calling your route handler.

Sessions are great for front-end web applications built in Vapor that serve HTML directly to web browsers. For APIs, we recommend using stateless, token-based authentication to persist user data between requests.

Session Authenticatable

To use session-based authentication, you will need a type that conforms to SessionAuthenticatable. For this example, we'll use a simple struct.

import Vapor

struct User {
    var email: String
}

To conform to SessionAuthenticatable, you will need to specify a sessionID. This is the value that will be stored in the session data and must uniquely identify the user.

extension User: SessionAuthenticatable {
    var sessionID: String {
        self.email
    }
}

For our simple User type, we'll use the email address as the unique session identifier.

Session Authenticator

Next, we'll need a SessionAuthenticator to handle resolving instances of our User from the persisted session identifier.

struct UserSessionAuthenticator: SessionAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User
    func authenticate(sessionID: String, for request: Request) -> EventLoopFuture<Void> {
        let user = User(email: sessionID)
        request.auth.login(user)
        return request.eventLoop.makeSucceededFuture(())
    }
}

If you're using async/await you can use the AsyncSessionAuthenticator:

struct UserSessionAuthenticator: AsyncSessionAuthenticator {
    typealias User = App.User
    func authenticate(sessionID: String, for request: Request) async throws {
        let user = User(email: sessionID)
        request.auth.login(user)
    }
}

Since all the information we need to initialize our example User is contained in the session identifier, we can create and login the user synchronously. In a real-world application, you would likely use the session identifier to perform a database lookup or API request to fetch the rest of the user data before authenticating.

Next, let's create a simple bearer authenticator to perform the initial authentication.

struct UserBearerAuthenticator: AsyncBearerAuthenticator {
    func authenticate(bearer: BearerAuthorization, for request: Request) async throws {
        if bearer.token == "test" {
            let user = User(email: "hello@vapor.codes")
            request.auth.login(user)
        }
    }
}

This authenticator will authenticate a user with the email hello@vapor.codes when the bearer token test is sent.

Finally, let's combine all these pieces together in your application.

// Create protected route group which requires user auth.
let protected = app.routes.grouped([
    app.sessions.middleware,
    UserSessionAuthenticator(),
    UserBearerAuthenticator(),
    User.guardMiddleware(),
])

// Add GET /me route for reading user's email.
protected.get("me") { req -> String in
    try req.auth.require(User.self).email
}

SessionsMiddleware is added first to enable session support on the application. More information about configuring sessions can be found in the Session API section.

Next, the SessionAuthenticator is added. This handles authenticating the user if a session is active.

If the authentication has not been persisted in the session yet, the request will be forwarded to the next authenticator. UserBearerAuthenticator will check the bearer token and authenticate the user if it equals "test".

Finally, User.guardMiddleware() will ensure that User has been authenticated by one of the previous middleware. If the user has not been authenticated, an error will be thrown.

To test this route, first send the following request:

GET /me HTTP/1.1
authorization: Bearer test

This will cause UserBearerAuthenticator to authenticate the user. Once authenticated, UserSessionAuthenticator will persist the user's identifier in session storage and generate a cookie. Use the cookie from the response in a second request to the route.

GET /me HTTP/1.1
cookie: vapor_session=123

This time, UserSessionAuthenticator will authenticate the user and you should again see the user's email returned.

Model Session Authenticatable

Fluent models can generate SessionAuthenticators by conforming to ModelSessionAuthenticatable. This will use the model's unique identifier as the session identifier and automatically perform a database lookup to restore the model from the session.

import Fluent

final class User: Model { ... }

// Allow this model to be persisted in sessions.
extension User: ModelSessionAuthenticatable { }

You can add ModelSessionAuthenticatable to any existing model as an empty conformance. Once added, a new static method will be available for creating a SessionAuthenticator for that model.

User.sessionAuthenticator()

This will use the application's default database for resolving the user. To specify a database, pass the identifier.

User.sessionAuthenticator(.sqlite)

Website Authentication

Websites are a special case for authentication because the use of a browser restricts how you can attach credentials to a browser. This leads to two different authentication scenarios:

• the initial log in via a form
• subsequent calls authenticated with a session cookie

Vapor and Fluent provides several helpers to make this seamless.

Session Authentication

Session authentication works as described above. You need to apply the session middleware and session authenticator to all routes that your user will access. These include any protected routes, any routes which are public but you may still want to access the user if they're logged in (to display an account button for instance) and login routes.

You can enable this globally in your app in configure.swift like so:

app.middleware.use(app.sessions.middleware)
app.middleware.use(User.sessionAuthenticator())

These middlewares do the following:

• the sessions middleware takes the session cookie provided in the request and converts it into a session
• the session authenticator takes the session and see if there is an authenticated user for that session. If so, the middleware authenticates the request. In the response, the session authenticator sees if the request has an authenticated user and saves them in the session so they're authenticated in the next request.

Note

The session cookie is not set to secure and httpOnly by default. Check Vapor's Session API for more information on how to configure cookies.

Protecting Routes

When protecting routes for an API, you traditionally return an HTTP response with a status code such as 401 Unauthorized if the request is not authenticated. However, this isn't a very good user experience for someone using a browser. Vapor provides a RedirectMiddleware for any Authenticatable type to use in this scenario:

let protectedRoutes = app.grouped(User.redirectMiddleware(path: "/login?loginRequired=true"))

The RedirectMiddleware object also supports passing a closure that returns the redirect path as a String during creation for advanced url handling. For instance, including the path redirected from as query parameter to the redirect target for state management.

let redirectMiddleware = User.redirectMiddleware { req -> String in
  return "/login?authRequired=true&next=\(req.url.path)"
}

This works similar to the GuardMiddleware. Any requests to routes registered to protectedRoutes that aren't authenticated will be redirected to the path provided. This allows you to tell your users to log in, rather than just providing a 401 Unauthorized.

Be sure to include a Session Authenticator before the RedirectMiddleware to ensure the authenticated user is loaded before running through the RedirectMiddleware.

let protectedRoutes = app.grouped([User.sessionAuthenticator(), redirectMiddleware])

Form Log In

To authenticate a user and future requests with a session, you need to log a user in. Vapor provides a ModelCredentialsAuthenticatable protocol to conform to. This handles log in via a form. First conform your User to this protocol:

extension User: ModelCredentialsAuthenticatable {
    static let usernameKey = \User.$email
    static let passwordHashKey = \User.$password

    func verify(password: String) throws -> Bool {
        try Bcrypt.verify(password, created: self.password)
    }
}

This is identical to ModelAuthenticatable and if you already conform to that then you don't need to do anything else. Next apply this ModelCredentialsAuthenticator middleware to your log in form POST request:

let credentialsProtectedRoute = sessionRoutes.grouped(User.credentialsAuthenticator())
credentialsProtectedRoute.post("login", use: loginPostHandler)

This uses the default credentials authenticator to protect the login route. You must send username and password in the POST request. You can set your form up like so:

 <form method="POST" action="/login">
    <label for="username">Username</label>
    <input type="text" id="username" placeholder="Username" name="username" autocomplete="username" required autofocus>
    <label for="password">Password</label>
    <input type="password" id="password" placeholder="Password" name="password" autocomplete="current-password" required>
    <input type="submit" value="Sign In">    
</form>

The CredentialsAuthenticator extracts the username and password from the request body, finds the user from the username and verifies the password. If the password is valid, the middleware authenticates the request. The SessionAuthenticator then authenticates the session for subsequent requests.

JWT

JWT provides a JWTAuthenticator that can be used to authenticate JSON Web Tokens in incoming requests. If you are new to JWT, check out the overview.

First, create a type representing a JWT payload.

// Example JWT payload.
struct SessionToken: Content, Authenticatable, JWTPayload {

    // Constants
    let expirationTime: TimeInterval = 60 * 15

    // Token Data
    var expiration: ExpirationClaim
    var userId: UUID

    init(userId: UUID) {
        self.userId = userId
        self.expiration = ExpirationClaim(value: Date().addingTimeInterval(expirationTime))
    }

    init(with user: User) throws {
        self.userId = try user.requireID()
        self.expiration = ExpirationClaim(value: Date().addingTimeInterval(expirationTime))
    }

    func verify(using algorithm: some JWTAlgorithm) throws {
        try expiration.verifyNotExpired()
    }
}

Next, we can define a representation of the data contained in a successful login response. For now the response will only have one property which is a string representing a signed JWT.

struct ClientTokenResponse: Content {
    var token: String
}

Using our model for the JWT token and response, we can use a password protected login route which returns a ClientTokenResponse and includes a signed SessionToken.

let passwordProtected = app.grouped(User.authenticator(), User.guardMiddleware())
passwordProtected.post("login") { req async throws -> ClientTokenResponse in
    let user = try req.auth.require(User.self)
    let payload = try SessionToken(with: user)
    return ClientTokenResponse(token: try await req.jwt.sign(payload))
}

Alternatively, if you don't want to use an authenticator you can have something that looks like the following.

app.post("login") { req async throws -> ClientTokenResponse in
    // Validate provided credential for user
    // Get userId for provided user
    let payload = try SessionToken(userId: userId)
    return ClientTokenResponse(token: try await req.jwt.sign(payload))
}

By conforming the payload to Authenticatable and JWTPayload, you can generate a route authenticator using the authenticator() method. Add this to a route group to automatically fetch and verify the JWT before your route is called.

// Create a route group that requires the SessionToken JWT.
let secure = app.grouped(SessionToken.authenticator(), SessionToken.guardMiddleware())

Adding the optional guard middleware will require that authorization succeeded.

Inside the protected routes, you can access the authenticated JWT payload using req.auth.

// Return ok reponse if the user-provided token is valid.
secure.post("validateLoggedInUser") { req -> HTTPStatus in
    let sessionToken = try req.auth.require(SessionToken.self)
    print(sessionToken.userId)
    return .ok
}