Tool OAuth

This guide teaches you how to build OAuth support into your tool plugin. OAuth is a better way to authorize tool plugins that need to access user data from third-party services, like Gmail or GitHub. Instead of requiring the user to manually enter API keys, OAuth lets the tool act on behalf of the user with their explicit consent.

Background

OAuth in Dify involves two separate flows that developers should understand and design for.

Flow 1: OAuth Client Setup (Admin / Developer Flow)

On Dify Cloud, the Dify team creates OAuth apps for popular tool plugins and sets up OAuth clients, so users don’t need to configure this themselves.Admins of self-hosted Dify instances must go through this setup flow.

Admins or developers of a Dify instance first register an OAuth app with the third-party service as a trusted application. This provides the credentials needed to configure the Dify tool provider as an OAuth client. As an example, here are the steps to set up an OAuth client for Dify’s Gmail tool provider:

Create a Google Cloud Project

Go to Google Cloud Console and create a new project, or select an existing one.
Enable the required APIs (e.g., Gmail API).

Create OAuth 2.0 Credentials

Go to APIs & Services > Credentials.
Click Create Credentials > OAuth 2.0 Client IDs.
Choose the Web application type.
A client_id and a client_secret will be generated. Save these as the credentials.

Enter Credentials in Dify

Enter the client_id and client_secret in the OAuth Client configuration popup to set up the tool provider as a client.

Authorize Redirect URI

Dify displays the redirect_uri in the OAuth Client configuration popup. It usually follows the format:

https://{your-dify-domain}/console/api/oauth/plugin/{plugin-id}/{provider-name}/{tool-name}/callback

For self-hosted Dify, your-dify-domain should match CONSOLE_WEB_URL.

Each service has unique requirements, so always consult the specific OAuth documentation for the services you’re integrating with.

Flow 2: User Authorization (Dify User Flow)

After configuring OAuth clients, individual Dify users can now authorize your plugin to access their personal accounts.

Implementation

1. Define OAuth Schema in Provider Manifest

The oauth_schema section of the provider manifest tells Dify what credentials your plugin’s OAuth setup needs and what the OAuth flow produces. Setting up OAuth requires two schemas:

client_schema

Defines the input for OAuth client setup:

gmail.yaml

oauth_schema:
  client_schema:
    - name: "client_id"
      type: "secret-input"
      required: true
      url: "https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/oauth2"
    - name: "client_secret"
      type: "secret-input" 
      required: true

The url field links to the third-party service’s help documentation, giving admins and developers a reference during setup.

credentials_schema

Specifies what the user authorization flow produces (Dify manages these automatically):

# also under oauth_schema
  credentials_schema:
    - name: "access_token"
      type: "secret-input"
    - name: "refresh_token"
      type: "secret-input"
    - name: "expires_at"
      type: "secret-input"

Include oauth_schema and credentials_for_provider together to offer both OAuth and API key authentication options.

2. Complete Required OAuth Methods in Tool Provider

Add these imports where your ToolProvider is implemented:

from dify_plugin.entities.oauth import ToolOAuthCredentials
from dify_plugin.errors.tool import ToolProviderCredentialValidationError, ToolProviderOAuthError

Your ToolProvider class must implement these three OAuth methods (using GmailProvider as an example):

Never return the client_secret in the credentials of ToolOAuthCredentials; doing so could lead to security issues.

def _oauth_get_authorization_url(self, redirect_uri: str, system_credentials: Mapping[str, Any]) -> str:
	"""
	Generate the authorization URL using credentials from OAuth Client Setup Flow. 
    This URL is where users grant permissions.
    """
    # Generate random state for CSRF protection (recommended for all OAuth flows)
    state = secrets.token_urlsafe(16)
    
    # Define Gmail-specific scopes - request minimal necessary permissions
    scope = "read:user read:data"  # Replace with your required scopes
    
    # Assemble Gmail-specific payload
    params = {
        "client_id": system_credentials["client_id"],    # From OAuth Client Setup
        "redirect_uri": redirect_uri,                    # Dify generates this - DON'T modify
        "scope": scope,                                  
        "response_type": "code",                         # Standard OAuth authorization code flow
        "access_type": "offline",                        # Critical: gets refresh token (if supported)
        "prompt": "consent",                             # Forces reauth when scopes change (if supported)
        "state": state,                                  # CSRF protection
    }
    
    return f"{self._AUTH_URL}?{urllib.parse.urlencode(params)}"

def _oauth_get_credentials(
    self, redirect_uri: str, system_credentials: Mapping[str, Any], request: Request
) -> ToolOAuthCredentials:
    """
    Exchange authorization code for access token and refresh token. This is called
	to create ONE credential set for one account connection.
    """
    # Extract authorization code from OAuth callback
    code = request.args.get("code")
    if not code:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError("Authorization code not provided")
    
    # Check for authorization errors from OAuth provider
    error = request.args.get("error")
    if error:
        error_description = request.args.get("error_description", "")
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"OAuth authorization failed: {error} - {error_description}")
    
    # Exchange authorization code for tokens using OAuth Client Setup credentials

	# Assemble Gmail-specific payload
    data = {
        "client_id": system_credentials["client_id"],        # From OAuth Client Setup
        "client_secret": system_credentials["client_secret"], # From OAuth Client Setup
        "code": code,                                        # From user's authorization
        "grant_type": "authorization_code",                  # Standard OAuth flow type
        "redirect_uri": redirect_uri,                        # Must exactly match authorization URL
    }
    
    headers = {"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"}
    
    try:
        response = requests.post(
            self._TOKEN_URL,
            data=data,
            headers=headers,
            timeout=10
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        
        token_data = response.json()
        
        # Handle OAuth provider errors in response
        if "error" in token_data:
            error_desc = token_data.get('error_description', token_data['error'])
            raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Token exchange failed: {error_desc}")
        
        access_token = token_data.get("access_token")
        if not access_token:
            raise ToolProviderOAuthError("No access token received from provider")
        
        # Build credentials dict matching your credentials_schema
        credentials = {
            "access_token": access_token,
            "token_type": token_data.get("token_type", "Bearer"),
        }
        
        # Include refresh token if provided (critical for long-term access)
        refresh_token = token_data.get("refresh_token")
        if refresh_token:
            credentials["refresh_token"] = refresh_token
        
        # Handle token expiration - some providers don't provide expires_in
        expires_in = token_data.get("expires_in", 3600)  # Default to 1 hour
        expires_at = int(time.time()) + expires_in
        
        return ToolOAuthCredentials(credentials=credentials, expires_at=expires_at)
        
    except requests.RequestException as e:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Network error during token exchange: {str(e)}")
    except Exception as e:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Failed to exchange authorization code: {str(e)}")

def _oauth_refresh_credentials(
    self, redirect_uri: str, system_credentials: Mapping[str, Any], credentials: Mapping[str, Any]
) -> ToolOAuthCredentials:
    """
    Refresh the credentials using the refresh token. 
	Dify calls this automatically when tokens expire.
    """
    refresh_token = credentials.get("refresh_token")
    if not refresh_token:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError("No refresh token available")

    # Standard OAuth refresh token flow
    data = {
        "client_id": system_credentials["client_id"],       # From OAuth Client Setup
        "client_secret": system_credentials["client_secret"], # From OAuth Client Setup
        "refresh_token": refresh_token,                     # From previous authorization
        "grant_type": "refresh_token",                      # OAuth refresh flow
    }

    headers = {"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"}

    try:
        response = requests.post(
            self._TOKEN_URL,
            data=data,
            headers=headers,
            timeout=10
        )
        response.raise_for_status()

        token_data = response.json()

        # Handle refresh errors
        if "error" in token_data:
            error_desc = token_data.get('error_description', token_data['error'])
            raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Token refresh failed: {error_desc}")

        access_token = token_data.get("access_token")
        if not access_token:
            raise ToolProviderOAuthError("No access token received from provider")

        # Build new credentials, preserving existing refresh token
        new_credentials = {
            "access_token": access_token,
            "token_type": token_data.get("token_type", "Bearer"),
            "refresh_token": refresh_token,  # Keep existing refresh token
        }

        # Handle token expiration
        expires_in = token_data.get("expires_in", 3600)

        # update refresh token if new one provided
        new_refresh_token = token_data.get("refresh_token")
        if new_refresh_token:
            new_credentials["refresh_token"] = new_refresh_token

        # Calculate new expiration timestamp for Dify's token management
        expires_at = int(time.time()) + expires_in

        return ToolOAuthCredentials(credentials=new_credentials, expires_at=expires_at)

    except requests.RequestException as e:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Network error during token refresh: {str(e)}")
    except Exception as e:
        raise ToolProviderOAuthError(f"Failed to refresh credentials: {str(e)}")

3. Access Tokens in Your Tools

Use OAuth credentials to make authenticated API calls in your Tool implementation:

class YourTool(BuiltinTool):
    def _invoke(self, user_id: str, tool_parameters: dict[str, Any]) -> ToolInvokeMessage:
        if self.runtime.credential_type == CredentialType.OAUTH:
            access_token = self.runtime.credentials["access_token"]
        
        response = requests.get("https://api.service.com/data",
                              headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"})
        return self.create_text_message(response.text)

self.runtime.credentials automatically provides the current user’s tokens. Dify handles refresh automatically. For plugins that support both OAuth and API_KEY authentication, use self.runtime.credential_type to differentiate between the two authentication types.

4. Specify the Correct Versions

OAuth requires a recent SDK and Dify version. Pin the plugin SDK in requirements.txt:

dify_plugin>=0.5.0

In manifest.yaml, add the minimum Dify version:

meta:
  version: 0.0.1
  arch:
    - amd64
    - arm64
  runner:
    language: python
    version: "3.12"
    entrypoint: main
  minimum_dify_version: 1.7.1

Getting Started

Features & Specs

Development Guides & Walkthroughs

Publishing

Background

Flow 1: OAuth Client Setup (Admin / Developer Flow)

Flow 2: User Authorization (Dify User Flow)

Implementation

1. Define OAuth Schema in Provider Manifest

client_schema

credentials_schema

2. Complete Required OAuth Methods in Tool Provider

3. Access Tokens in Your Tools

4. Specify the Correct Versions

​Background

​Flow 1: OAuth Client Setup (Admin / Developer Flow)

​Flow 2: User Authorization (Dify User Flow)

​Implementation

​1. Define OAuth Schema in Provider Manifest

​client_schema

​credentials_schema

​2. Complete Required OAuth Methods in Tool Provider

​3. Access Tokens in Your Tools

​4. Specify the Correct Versions

Background

Flow 1: OAuth Client Setup (Admin / Developer Flow)

Flow 2: User Authorization (Dify User Flow)

Implementation

1. Define OAuth Schema in Provider Manifest

client_schema

credentials_schema

2. Complete Required OAuth Methods in Tool Provider

3. Access Tokens in Your Tools

4. Specify the Correct Versions