Bearcaps

A URI scheme combining URLs with a Bearer token needed to access them.

What are bearcaps?

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, simply 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?

As of v3.3.0, Mastodon supports dereferencing bearcaps in a received Activity. Bearcap are not used for sending any Activity yet.

Last updated December 27, 2020 · Improve this page