# Feature Request: Admin API route to manage access tokens for any user
## Problem
The existing API route to create access tokens (POST /api/v1/users/{username}/tokens) requires Basic authentication (username + password) via the reqBasicOrRevProxyAuth() middleware. This is by design: a token should not be created from another token.
However, this creates a blocker for environments where Basic authentication is disabled (ENABLE_BASIC_AUTHENTICATION = false), typically when authentication is delegated to an external SSO provider (e.g., OpenID Connect).
In such setups, bot/service accounts are provisioned by an external system that needs to:
Create a user via POST /api/v1/admin/users (works fine with an admin token)
Create an access token for that user (currently impossible without Basic auth or direct CLI/DB access)
The only workaround today is to SSH into the Forgejo server and run:
This is not suitable when the provisioning system has no direct access to the Forgejo host.
## Proposed solution
Add new admin-only API routes under the existing /api/v1/admin/users/{username} group to manage access tokens:
| Method | Route | Description |
|:-------- |:--------:| --------:|
| GET | /api/v1/admin/users/{username}/tokens | List access tokens for a user|
|POST | /api/v1/admin/users/{username}/tokens | Create an access token for a user|
|DELETE | /api/v1/admin/users/{username}/tokens/{id} | Delete an access token for a user|
These routes would:
Require a site admin token (reqToken() + reqSiteAdmin()) — no Basic auth needed
Use the AccessTokenScopeCategoryAdmin token scope
Reuse the existing handler logic from user.CreateAccessToken / user.ListAccessTokens / user.DeleteAccessToken
Accept the same request/response payloads as the existing user-facing routes
### Why this belongs in the admin API
It follows the existing pattern: admins can already create users, repos, orgs, SSH keys, and emails for any user via the admin API
It does not weaken security: only site administrators can call it, and it requires a valid admin-scoped token
It fills a gap: the admin CLI command forgejo admin user generate-access-token already provides this capability, but only locally
<!--start release-notes-assistant-->
## Release notes
<!--URL:https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo-->
- Features
- [PR](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/12323): <!--number 12323 --><!--line 0 --><!--description ZmVhdChhcGkpOiBhZGQgYWRtaW4gcm91dGVzIHRvIG1hbmFnZSB1c2VyIGFjY2VzcyB0b2tlbnM=-->feat(api): add admin routes to manage user access tokens<!--description-->
<!--end release-notes-assistant-->
Reviewed-on: https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/12323
Reviewed-by: Mathieu Fenniak <mfenniak@noreply.codeberg.org>
Thank you for your effort to provide good software tests for Forgejo.
Please also read the general testing instructions in the
Forgejo contributor documentation.
This file is meant to provide specific information for the integration tests
as well as some tips and tricks you should know.
Feel free to extend this file with more instructions if you feel like you have something to share!
How to run the tests?
Before running any tests, please ensure you perform a clean build:
make clean build
Integration tests can be run with make commands for the
appropriate backends, namely:
make test-sqlite
make test-pgsql
make test-mysql
Run tests via local forgejo runner
If you have a forgejo runner,
you can use it to run the test jobs:
docker run -e MYSQL_DATABASE=test -e MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes -p 3306:3306 --rm --name mysql mysql:latest #(Ctrl-c to stop the database)
Start tests based on the database container
TEST_MYSQL_HOST=localhost:3306 TEST_MYSQL_DBNAME=test?multiStatements=true TEST_MYSQL_USERNAME=root TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD='' make test-mysql
Run pgsql integration tests
Setup a pgsql database inside docker
docker run -e "POSTGRES_DB=test" -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRESQL_FSYNC=off -e POSTGRESQL_EXTRA_FLAGS="-c full_page_writes=off" -p 5432:5432 --rm --name pgsql data.forgejo.org/oci/bitnami/postgresql:16 #(Ctrl-c to stop)
Setup a S3 server inside docker
docker run -e MINIO_ROOT_USER=123456 -e MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=12345678 -p 9000:9000 --rm --name minio data.forgejo.org/oci/bitnami/minio:2024.8.17 #(Ctrl-c to stop)
Start tests based on the database container
TEST_PGSQL_HOST=localhost:5432 TEST_PGSQL_DBNAME=test TEST_PGSQL_USERNAME=postgres TEST_PGSQL_PASSWORD=postgres TEST_S3_HOST=localhost:9000 make 'test-pgsql#Test'
Running individual tests
Example command to run GPG test:
For SQLite:
make test-sqlite#GPG
For other databases (replace mysql to pgsql):
TEST_MYSQL_HOST=localhost:1433 TEST_MYSQL_DBNAME=test TEST_MYSQL_USERNAME=sa TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD=MwantsaSecurePassword1 make test-mysql#GPG
Setting timeouts for declaring long-tests and long-flushes
We appreciate that some testing machines may not be very powerful and
the default timeouts for declaring a slow test or a slow clean-up flush
may not be appropriate.
You can either:
Within the test ini file set the following section:
[integration-tests]SLOW_TEST=10s ; 10s is the default valueSLOW_FLUSH=5S ; 5s is the default value
Set the following environment variables:
GITEA_SLOW_TEST_TIME="10s"GITEA_SLOW_FLUSH_TIME="5s" make test-sqlite
Tips and tricks
If you know noteworthy tests that can act as an inspiration for new tests,
please add some details here.
