> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://spreecommerce.org/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Authentication

Platform API is meant to be used by external applications to perform operations within Spree. Because of that, it uses a different authentication schema than the Storefront API.

### Creating an application inside Spree

To generate a valid token for the Platform API, you'll first need to create an application inside Spree.

1. Go to Spree's admin panel and open `Apps` -> `oAuth Applications` in the menu

   <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/spreecommerce/images/Platform%20API%201.png" />

2. Click on `New oAuth Application`

   <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/spreecommerce/images/Platform%20API%202.png" />

3. Give your application a name and click `Create`

   <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/spreecommerce/images/Platform%20API%203.png" />

4. Save your Client ID and Secret - you'll later use it to generate an OAuth token to access the platform API

   <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/spreecommerce/images/Platform%20API%204.png" />

### Generating OAuth token

Once the application is configured inside Spree, you can use its credentials to generate an OAuth token that will give you access to the APIs.

To obtain the token, send the following `POST` request to `/spree_oauth/token`

```json theme={"theme":"night-owl"}
{
  "grant_type": "client_credentials",
  "client_id": "xxx",
  "client_secret": "xxx",
  "scope": "admin"
}
```

In the response, you'll receive a token to pass in `Authorization: Bearer {token}` header when making requests to the Platform API.