OAuth 2.0

Our OAuth 2 implementation is merged in with our existing OAuth 1 in such a way that existing OAuth 1 consumers automatically become valid OAuth 2 clients. The only thing you need to do is edit your existing consumer and configure a callback URL.

Once that is in place, you'll have the following 2 URLs:

• https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/authorize
• https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token

For obtaining access/bearer tokens, we support three of RFC-6749's grant flows, plus a custom Bitbucket flow for exchanging JWT tokens for access tokens. Note that Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant (4.3) is no longer supported:

1. Authorization Code Grant (4.1)

The full-blown 3-LO flow. Request authorization from the end user by sending their browser to: https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/authorize?client_id={client_id}&response_type=code.

The callback includes the ?code={} query parameter that you can swap for an access token:

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$ curl -X POST -u "client_id:secret" \
  https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token \
  -d grant_type=authorization_code -d code={code}

Want a more in-depth example? Check out our authorization code grant sample app.

2. Implicit Grant (4.2)

This flow is useful for browser-based apps that operate without server-side backends.

Request the end user for authorization by directing the browser to: https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/authorize?client_id={client_id}&response_type=token.

That will redirect to your preconfigured callback URL with a fragment containing the access token (#access_token={token}&token_type=bearer) where your page's JavaScript can pull it out of the URL.

Want a more in-depth example? Check out our implicit grant sample app.

3. Client Credentials Grant (4.4)

Somewhat like our existing "2-LO" flow for OAuth 1. Obtain an access token that represents not an end user, but the owner of the client/consumer:

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$ curl -X POST -u "client_id:secret" \
  https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token \
  -d grant_type=client_credentials

Want a more in-depth example? Check out our client credentials grant sample app.

Making Requests

Once you have an access token, as per RFC-6750, you can use it in a request in any of the following ways (in decreasing order of desirability):

1. Send it in a request header: Authorization: Bearer {access_token}
2. Include it in a (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) POST body as access_token={access_token}
3. Put in the query string of a non-POST: ?access_token={access_token}

Repository Cloning

Since apps will not be able to upload their own SSH keys to clone with, access tokens can be used as Basic HTTP Auth credentials to clone securely over HTTPS. This is much like GitHub, yet slightly different:

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$ git clone https://x-token-auth:{access_token}@bitbucket.org/user/repo.git

The literal string x-token-auth as a substitute for username is required (note the difference with GitHub who put the actual token in the username field).

Refresh Tokens

Our access tokens expire in one hour. When this happens you'll get 401 responses.

Most access token grant responses (Implicit and JWT excluded) therefore include a refresh token that can then be used to generate a new access token, without the need for end user participation:

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$ curl -X POST -u "client_id:secret" \
  https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token \
  -d grant_type=refresh_token -d refresh_token={refresh_token}

Scopes

Scopes are defined on the client/consumer instance. Bitbucket Cloud does not currently support the use of the optional scope parameter on the individual grant requests.

When the scope parameter is provided, Bitbucket will validate that it contains no scopes that were not already present on the client/consumer and fail if additional scopes are requested, but asking for fewer scopes will not affect the resulting access token.