title: API: Provide an access token
role: manual
tags: #api #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk
back: 00001012000000 00001012080500
backward: 00001012000000 00001012080500
box-number: 1
copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
created: 20210126175322
forward: 00001012050200 00001012921000
lang: en
license: EUPL-1.2-or-later
modified: 20220218130020
published: 20220218130020
visibility: public

The [[authentication process|00001012050200]] provides you with an [[access token|00001012921000]].
Most API calls need such an access token, so that they know the identity of the caller.

You send the access token in the ""Authorization"" request header field, as described in [[RFC 6750, section 2.1|https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6750#section-2.1]].
You need to use the ""Bearer"" authentication scheme to transmit the access token.

For example (in plain text HTTP):
```
GET /z HTTP/1.0
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiJ9.eyJfdGsiOjEsImV4cCI6MTYwMTczMTI3NSwiaWF0IjoxNjAxNzMwNjc1LCJzdWIiOiJhYmMiLCJ6aWQiOiIyMDIwMTAwMzE1MDEwMCJ9.ekhXkvn146P2bMKFQcU-bNlvgbeO6sS39hs6U5EKfjIqnSInkuHYjYAIfUqf_clYRfr6YBlX5izii8XfxV8jhg
```
Note, that there is exactly one space character (""'' ''{-}"", U+0020) between the string ""Bearer"" and the access token: ``Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiJ9.ey...``{-}.

If you use the [[curl|https://curl.haxx.se/]] tool, you can use the ''-H'' command line parameter to set this header field.