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Do I need to use the admin bearer token for normal user actions via API? (e.g. login, post, upvote)

ActivityPub Test Kategorie
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  • Hi,

    I'm working on an Android app that uses NodeBB as the backend. I'm trying to interact with everything through the NodeBB API — like registering a normal user, logging them in, creating topics, replying, upvoting, etc.

    My main question is:

    Do I need to use the admin bearer token for all these actions, or should each normal user get their own token after login and use that?

    Also, I'm a bit confused about the login endpoint. I've seen both:

    /api/login

    /utilities/login

    Which one is the correct endpoint to log in a normal user using the API?

    Apologies if this is a basic question — I checked the docs but couldn't find a clear answer or a complete example for handling the full user flow via API. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated!

    Thanks in advance!

  • Hi,

    I'm working on an Android app that uses NodeBB as the backend. I'm trying to interact with everything through the NodeBB API — like registering a normal user, logging them in, creating topics, replying, upvoting, etc.

    My main question is:

    Do I need to use the admin bearer token for all these actions, or should each normal user get their own token after login and use that?

    Also, I'm a bit confused about the login endpoint. I've seen both:

    /api/login

    /utilities/login

    Which one is the correct endpoint to log in a normal user using the API?

    Apologies if this is a basic question — I checked the docs but couldn't find a clear answer or a complete example for handling the full user flow via API. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated!

    Thanks in advance!

    ajay_89 the admin bearer simply allows you to call the NodeBB API as any uid. A user token is keyed to a specific ID.

    In the Android app you would probably want to use a user token based on the logged in user. That is because it is likely unsafe to store the admin token in the APK. It can be decompiled and leaked.