atproto-oauth

AT Protocol OAuth

AT Protocol OAuth is an OAuth 2.1 profile with mandatory PKCE (S256), PAR, DPoP, and URL-based dynamic client registration via a published client metadata document. No client_secret — confidential clients authenticate to the token endpoint with a private_key_jwt assertion (ES256). Public / SPA / native clients authenticate by DPoP proof alone.

This skill routes to per-language guides for Rust, TypeScript, and Go, sitting on top of a language-neutral spec in shared/.

Defaults

• client_id is a URL. It resolves to a JSON metadata document the AS fetches on demand. The URL path, host, and protocol must match byte-for-byte between registration, PAR, and authorize.
• Every access token is DPoP-bound. dpop_bound_access_tokens: true is required in client metadata; every resource request carries a fresh DPoP proof with ath = SHA-256(access_token) and a per-origin nonce.
• PAR is required. You push the authorize request to pushed_authorization_request_endpoint and redirect the user to {AS}/oauth/authorize?client_id=...&request_uri=urn:ietf:params:oauth:request_uri:.... Query parameters never hit the user-agent.
• Scopes start with atproto. All flows must request atproto as the first scope. Further scopes are layered on: transition:generic, account:email?action=read, rpc:app.bsky.feed.*, include:<permission-set>, etc.
• The session belongs to the DID. sub in the token response is a DID. Handles may change; DIDs don't. Persist by DID.
• Identity verification is mandatory: sub → DID document → #atproto_pds → matches the PDS you discovered → authorization_servers[0] → matches the AS you talked to. Skip this step = CSRF window.

Full normative rules: shared/spec.md, shared/flows.md, shared/client-metadata.md, shared/dpop.md, shared/scopes.md, shared/sessions.md, shared/security-requirements.md. Fixtures: shared/test-vectors.md. Common failures: shared/troubleshooting.md. Cross-language differences: shared/divergence-matrix.md.

Language detection

Before generating or reviewing any OAuth code, determine the target language from project files or the file being edited:

• Cargo.toml, *.rs, mention of atproto-oauth / atproto-identity / atproto-oauth-aip → Rust — read from rust/.
• package.json, tsconfig.json, *.ts, *.tsx, imports of @atproto/oauth-client-node / @atproto/oauth-client-browser / @atproto/oauth-client / @atproto/jwk-jose → TypeScript — read from typescript/. Also *.js/*.jsx when there's no .ts.
• go.mod, *.go, imports of github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/atproto/auth/oauth → Go — read from go/.

Prefer the file being edited over the repo root when they disagree.

If multiple languages are present and the task doesn't point at one unambiguously, ask which one applies. Never mix OAuth libraries across languages in generated code.

If an unsupported language is detected (Python, Java, Swift, Kotlin, …), point the user at shared/spec.md, shared/flows.md, and shared/dpop.md for the wire format, and offer the TypeScript @atproto/oauth-client-node source as the most complete reference implementation to transliterate from.

Client-type detection

Before picking a file, also determine what kind of client is being built:

Kind	Clue	Route to…
Confidential (BFF)	Has server-side Rust/TS/Go code + a signing key	Node: typescript/*.md with NodeOAuthClient. Rust/Go: only option.
Public (SPA)	Browser-only; no server; tokens land in the browser	TypeScript only → typescript/*.md with BrowserOAuthClient. Rust and Go don't ship a browser client.
Public (native)	Desktop / mobile app with custom-scheme redirects	TypeScript (NodeOAuthClient with token_endpoint_auth_method: none). Rust can do it manually. Go: unsupported.
AS or resource server	Implementing the server side (rare)	Rust only (rust/dpop.md §server-side). TS and Go don't ship validators.

When in doubt, default to confidential BFF — it's the recommended pattern for any app that has a backend, and it keeps secrets out of the browser.

Reading guide

For every OAuth task:

1. Read the relevant shared/*.md first. They define the rules your code must enforce. Usually shared/spec.md + one of shared/flows.md / shared/dpop.md / shared/sessions.md / shared/client-metadata.md / shared/scopes.md.
2. Read the relevant task file in the detected language directory:
   • Publishing /oauth-client-metadata.json + /jwks.json → {lang}/client-metadata.md
   • Authorize / callback / refresh / logout flow → {lang}/flows.md
   • DPoP minting + nonce retry + server-side validation → {lang}/dpop.md
   • Pre-flow state, sessions, refresh-race mitigation → {lang}/sessions.md
   • Library setup, public API, idioms → {lang}/README.md
3. Consult shared/divergence-matrix.md whenever porting between languages or reviewing cross-stack interop.
4. Consult shared/troubleshooting.md when debugging a specific failure (invalid_dpop_proof, invalid_grant, callback cookie missing, etc.).
5. Before publishing a metadata doc, run scripts/validate_client_metadata.py against the served URL.

Always prefer the official library over hand-rolling: atproto-oauth in Rust, @atproto/oauth-client-* in TypeScript, indigo/atproto/auth/oauth in Go. The protocol is small but unforgiving — every byte of the wire matters.

The conceptual stack

  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Client metadata document (JSON at client_id)│  ← published by you
  │ { client_id, redirect_uris, jwks_uri, … }   │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ fetched once by AS
               ▼
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ PAR → /oauth/par                            │  ← flow starts
  │ POST client_assertion + DPoP + PKCE + scope │
  │    ↓                                        │
  │ request_uri: urn:ietf:params:oauth:request_uri:…│
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ redirect user agent to authorize
               ▼
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ User logs in at AS's UI, grants consent     │
  │    ↓                                        │
  │ Redirect back: ?code=…&state=…&iss=…        │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ callback
               ▼
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ /oauth/token (code exchange)                 │
  │ POST code + PKCE verifier + assertion + DPoP │
  │    ↓                                        │
  │ { access_token, refresh_token, sub: did,    │
  │   aud: pds_url, expires_in: 3600 }          │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
               │ persist session by DID
               ▼
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Resource request to PDS                     │
  │ Authorization: DPoP <access_token>          │
  │ DPoP: <proof with ath + nonce>              │
  └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Cross-language hazards to flag up front

High-frequency failure modes; full detail in shared/divergence-matrix.md:

• Refresh race — Two concurrent requests both refresh, one invalidates the other's refresh token, dead session. TS has NodeRequestLock built in; Rust and Go leave it to the caller. Every production BFF needs a per-DID lock (Redis/Postgres advisory or in-process mutex).
• htu normalization — Query strings and fragments must be stripped before minting a DPoP proof; default ports must be elided. TS does this automatically; Rust and Go don't. invalid_dpop_proof with identical-looking URLs = suspect this.
• Rust's hard-coded ES256 header — auth_dpop() writes alg: ES256 into the JWT header even when the key is P-384. Non-P-256 keys need dpop::mint with a custom header.
• Rust leaks private JWK components — jwk::generate() on a private KeyData serializes the d field unless the caller runs to_public(&key) first. TS and Go strip automatically.
• Go is BFF-only — No SPA support. No native client support in indigo. If the task is browser OAuth, route to TypeScript regardless of repo language.
• SameSite=Strict kills the callback — OAuth redirects are cross-origin top-level navigations; Strict drops the cookie and the callback handler can't find pre-flow state. Always Lax on session cookies.
• Public clients have a 14-day refresh cap, not 180. Silent until day 15 when invalid_grant suddenly starts failing.

Tools you can call

Prefer these MCP tools when the goal is to validate or compute rather than teach an implementation how:

• lexicon-garden → discover_permission_sets, check_compatibility (scope tooling), describe_me (authorize the session).
• atpmcp → resolve_handle_to_did, resolve_identity (identity lookups — needed for PDS/AS discovery).

For scope authoring and permission-set design, the normative source is https://atproto.com/specs/permission and https://atproto.com/guides/permission-sets.

Validator script

scripts/validate_client_metadata.py checks a served client metadata document for the invariants in shared/test-vectors.md §V5. Run it in CI against your deployed URL:

$ python scripts/validate_client_metadata.py https://app.example.com/oauth-client-metadata.json

Catches mutations like missing dpop_bound_access_tokens, wrong token_endpoint_auth_signing_alg, inline jwks containing private d field, http:// redirect outside loopback, etc.

Exit codes: 0 = document passes every invariant; 1 = at least one invariant failed (reasons printed to stdout); 2 = usage error (missing URL, network failure, non-JSON response). The script is stdlib-only and makes a single HTTP GET — no runtime dependencies, safe for CI sandboxes.

Directory layout

atproto-oauth/
├── SKILL.md                          # this file — router
├── scripts/
│   └── validate_client_metadata.py   # CI validator for metadata doc
├── shared/
│   ├── spec.md                       # OAuth 2.1 + AT Proto profile: entities, invariants
│   ├── flows.md                      # byte-level wire content for each step
│   ├── client-metadata.md            # metadata document fields, JWKS rules
│   ├── dpop.md                       # RFC 9449 profile
│   ├── scopes.md                     # scope grammar, permission sets
│   ├── sessions.md                   # pre-flow state + post-flow session rules
│   ├── security-requirements.md      # cookies, keys, tokens, SSRF
│   ├── troubleshooting.md            # common failures and diagnosis
│   ├── test-vectors.md               # fixtures for conformance
│   └── divergence-matrix.md          # cross-language differences
├── rust/
│   ├── README.md                     # atproto-oauth setup
│   ├── client-metadata.md            # jwk::generate + Axum handlers
│   ├── flows.md                      # oauth_init / oauth_complete / oauth_refresh
│   ├── dpop.md                       # auth_dpop / request_dpop / DpopRetry / validate_dpop_jwt
│   └── sessions.md                   # OAuthRequestStorage + custom session abstraction + refresh race
├── typescript/
│   ├── README.md                     # @atproto/oauth-client-* setup
│   ├── client-metadata.md            # client.clientMetadata + client.jwks + JoseKey
│   ├── flows.md                      # authorize / callback / restore / revoke + BrowserOAuthClient
│   ├── dpop.md                       # invisible fetchHandler DPoP + per-origin nonce cache
│   └── sessions.md                   # StateStore / SessionStore / NodeRequestLock + IndexedDB SPA
└── go/
    ├── README.md                     # indigo/atproto/auth/oauth setup
    ├── client-metadata.md            # cfg.ClientMetadata() + cfg.PublicJWKS()
    ├── flows.md                      # StartAuthFlow / ProcessCallback / ResumeSession / Logout
    ├── dpop.md                       # NewAuthDPoP + automatic ClientSession DPoP
    └── sessions.md                   # ClientAuthStore + refresh race (caller-owned)

References

All reachable from the tree above. Listed here for quick grep:

• shared/spec.md, shared/flows.md, shared/client-metadata.md, shared/dpop.md, shared/scopes.md, shared/sessions.md, shared/security-requirements.md, shared/troubleshooting.md, shared/test-vectors.md, shared/divergence-matrix.md
• rust/README.md, rust/client-metadata.md, rust/flows.md, rust/dpop.md, rust/sessions.md
• typescript/README.md, typescript/client-metadata.md, typescript/flows.md, typescript/dpop.md, typescript/sessions.md
• go/README.md, go/client-metadata.md, go/flows.md, go/dpop.md, go/sessions.md

Upstream normative sources:

• https://atproto.com/specs/oauth — AT Proto OAuth profile
• https://atproto.com/specs/permission — scopes and permission sets
• https://atproto.com/guides/auth, https://atproto.com/guides/about-oauth, https://atproto.com/guides/oauth-patterns, https://atproto.com/guides/sdk-auth, https://atproto.com/guides/permission-requests, https://atproto.com/guides/permission-sets — conceptual guides
• RFC 9449 (DPoP), RFC 7636 (PKCE), RFC 9126 (PAR), RFC 7523 (JWT client auth), RFC 8414 (server metadata), RFC 9207 (iss), OAuth 2.1 draft