bearcaps.md 945 B
title: Bearcaps description: A URI scheme combining URLs with a Bearer token needed to access them. menu: docs:
weight: 60
parent: spec
What are bearcaps? {#intro}
In certain cases, resources may not be publically available and may require a token to successfully fetch them. This is typically done by using an HTTP Authorization header containing a Bearer token, like so:
GET https://example.com/foo
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Bearcaps allow for a way to link to a resource with the token included, like so:
bear:?t=<token>&u=https://example.com/foo'
To translate a bearcap to an HTTP request, make a request to the u parameter and attach the t parameter as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.
How are bearcaps used in Mastodon? {#usage}
As of v3.3.0, Mastodon supports dereferencing bearcaps in a received Activity. Bearcaps are not used for sending any Activity yet.