JWT Authentication

TDB issues short-lived JWT access tokens via a username/password login endpoint. Tokens are signed HS256 using TDB_JWT_SECRET.

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Required environment variables

TDB_JWT_SECRET=<64-char hex>        # Required — server will return 503 without it
TDB_ADMIN_USER=admin                # Required — login username
TDB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<password>       # Required — login password
TDB_JWT_EXPIRE_MINUTES=60           # Optional — token lifetime (default: 60 minutes)

Generate a secure secret:

python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"

Single admin user

The current release supports one admin identity (TDB_ADMIN_USER / TDB_ADMIN_PASSWORD). Multi-user support with individual logins is planned for a future release. For role-scoped access today, use DB-managed API keys with RBAC.

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Issue a token

POST /v1/auth/token

Request body:

{
  "username": "admin",
  "password": "your-strong-password"
}

Response:

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...",
  "token_type": "bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600
}

Field	Description
access_token	JWT to use as Authorization: Bearer <token>
token_type	Always "bearer"
expires_in	Token lifetime in seconds

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Use the token

Include the JWT in the Authorization header on every subsequent request:

curl http://localhost:8000/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."

---

Full login + query example

# 1. Log in
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/auth/token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"admin","password":"your-password"}' \
  | python -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['access_token'])")

# 2. List sources
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

# 3. Query
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/query \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "source_id": "<SOURCE_ID>",
    "sql": "SELECT * FROM data LIMIT 10"
  }'

Table name in the query above

The FROM data here is illustrative. The table name depends on the connector — CSV sources use data, database sources use the registered table name. See Query API → Table name in queries.

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Token contents

The JWT payload contains:

{
  "sub": "admin",
  "role": "admin",
  "exp": 1716375600,
  "iat": 1716372000
}

JWT tokens currently carry the "admin" role. For fine-grained, role-scoped access, use DB-managed API keys with RBAC (read / readwrite / admin); per-user JWT roles are planned for a future release.

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Token expiry and refresh

TDB does not yet implement token refresh. When a token expires, re-authenticate via POST /v1/auth/token. The TDB_JWT_EXPIRE_MINUTES default is 60 minutes — increase it for longer-lived sessions or automate re-login in your integration.

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Error responses

Scenario	HTTP	Body
Wrong username or password	401	{"detail":"Invalid credentials"}
TDB_JWT_SECRET not set	503	{"detail":"JWT authentication is not configured. Set TDB_JWT_SECRET, TDB_ADMIN_USER, and TDB_ADMIN_PASSWORD."}
Expired token used	401	{"detail":"Not authenticated"}