api-authentication

A guide to securing application programming interfaces with common login and access methods, including JWTs, OAuth 2.0, API keys, and server sessions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when securing API endpoints, adding token refresh, comparing authentication approaches, storing credentials safely, or investigating authentication bugs.
Why use it?
It helps you choose an authentication method and avoid common mistakes such as stolen tokens, weak password handling, missing expiration, and cross-site request forgery.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit/api-authentication
Any agent
npx skills add stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit --skill api-authentication
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 77 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 5,510 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00077 $0.05510
Opus 5 $0.00039 $0.02755
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.01102
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00551

Measured 2d ago against content hash 7dadce4c7c49, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

api-authentication scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/general-dev/api-authentication/SKILL.md · 806 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 806 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

API Authentication Patterns

Comprehensive guide to implementing secure API authentication including JWT, OAuth 2.0, API keys, and session-based patterns. Covers when to use each approach, security best practices, and common vulnerabilities to avoid.


Quick Reference

When to use this skill:

  • Implementing API authentication
  • Choosing between auth strategies (JWT vs OAuth vs sessions)
  • Securing API endpoints
  • Implementing token refresh logic
  • Debugging authentication issues
  • Preventing auth vulnerabilities

Common triggers:

  • "How should I implement authentication"
  • "JWT vs OAuth vs API keys"
  • "How to secure this API"
  • "Implement refresh tokens"
  • "Store authentication tokens securely"
  • "Fix authentication vulnerability"

Prevents vulnerabilities:

  • Token theft and replay attacks
  • Insecure token storage
  • Missing token expiration
  • Weak password hashing
  • CSRF attacks

Part 1: Authentication Strategy Decision Matrix

When to Use Each Pattern

Pattern Best For Pros Cons
JWT Stateless APIs, microservices, mobile apps Stateless, scalable, works across domains Tokens can't be revoked easily, larger payload
OAuth 2.0 Third-party access, social login, delegation Industry standard, fine-grained permissions Complex to implement, requires authorization server
API Keys Server-to-server, public APIs, rate limiting Simple, great for service accounts Not for users, can't be scoped easily
Sessions Traditional web apps, SSR, same-domain Revocable, server-controlled, secure Requires server state, doesn't scale horizontally easily

Decision Tree

START: What type of client?

├─ Mobile app or SPA?
│  └─ Use JWT (stateless, works across domains)
│
├─ Third-party integration?
│  └─ Use OAuth 2.0 (delegation, scoped permissions)
│
├─ Service-to-service?
│  └─ Use API Keys (simple, rate-limitable)
│
└─ Traditional web app (same domain)?
   └─ Use Sessions (revocable, server-controlled)

Read the full file on GitHub · 806 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 806 lines · 77 tokens per session scan A 7dadce4c7c49

Subscribe to this mod's changes

api-authentication is a skill published in the GitHub repository stefan-jansen/claude-code-toolkit (85 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 77 tokens to every session and 5,510 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

implementation-strategy

Choose compatibility-aware scope for runtime and API changes in openai-agents-python. Use before initial implementation and each review-feedback batch to decide whether to patch, reset the design, preserve compatibility, or reject unsupported cases.

openai/openai-agents-python · 47 tokens

examples-run-analysis

Analyze artifacts from the latest completed manual examples Make run. Read the main log, every relevant per-example log, and example source; validate every exit-0 example and classify failures, skips, and environment restrictions. Never execute or control examples.

openai/openai-agents-python · 52 tokens

implementation-final-review

Perform the repository's risk-tiered independent final review before implementation completion. Use only when explicitly invoked or when repository instructions require it after behavior-impacting implementation work; audit the complete task diff, supported contracts, lifecycle and security boundaries, complexity, and…

openai/openai-agents-python · 58 tokens

implementation-kickoff

Start and carry an explicitly invoked openai-agents-python implementation through a fresh isolated worktree and a local PR-ready handoff. Fetch the latest origin/main, keep task changes uncommitted, replay them onto the latest main before final review, run applicable verification and $implementation-final-review, use…

openai/openai-agents-python · 113 tokens

test-coverage-improver

Improve test coverage in the OpenAI Agents Python repository: run make coverage, inspect coverage artifacts, identify low-coverage files, propose high-impact tests, and confirm with the user before writing tests.

openai/openai-agents-python · 47 tokens

openai-knowledge

Use when working with the OpenAI API (Responses API) or OpenAI platform features (tools, streaming, Realtime API, auth, models, rate limits, MCP) and you need authoritative, up-to-date documentation (schemas, examples, limits, edge cases). Prefer the OpenAI Developer Documentation MCP server tools when available…

openai/openai-agents-python · 83 tokens