OCaml JWT

JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact claims representation format intended for space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization headers and URI query parameters. JWTs encode claims to be transmitted as a JSON [RFC7159] object that is used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] structure or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) [JWE] structure, enabling the claims to be digitally signed or integrity protected with a Message Authentication Code (MAC) and/or encrypted. JWTs are always represented using the JWS Compact Serialization or the JWE Compact Serialization.

The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English word "jot".

How to install?

You can use OPAM to get the last released version:

opam install jwt

If you want the development version, you can pin the repository:

opam pin add jwt https://github.com/besport/ocaml-jwt.git

Documentation

A JWT object is represented by a type Jwt.t containing the header (of type Jwt.header) and the payload (of type Jwt.payload).

Header

You can choose the algorithm you want to sign the token. A header contains the attribute typ and alg. The attribute alg is represented by a sum type Jwt.algorithm.

The currently supported algorithms are:

• HS256
• HS512
• RS256

You can create a header with Jwt.header_of_algorithm.

For example:

Jwt.header_of_algorithm_and_typ (Jwt.HS256 "SecretKeyNotReallySecret") "JWT"

Payload

Possible claims are represented by a type Jwt.claim. You can create a new claim with Jwt.claim "claim name" and get the claim name with Jwt.string_of_claim claim. Here a list of predefined claims:

• iss
• sub
• aud
• exp
• nbf
• iat
• jti
• typ
• ctyp
• alg
• auth_time
• nonce
• acr
• amr
• azp

An empty payload can be created with Jwt.empty_payload and you can add claim with Jwt.add_claim claim "claim value" payload

For example:

let payload =
  let open Jwt in
  empty_payload
  |> add_claim iss "https://github.com"
  |> add_claim sub "github"

Get the token representation.

You can get the token representation of a type t with Jwt.to_token.

Decode a token.

As JWT data are encoded in base64, we can retrieve the information like the header and the payload from the token.

You can use Jwt.of_token to get a type t with the header and the payload encoded in the token.