A zero-friction authentication & authorization toolkit for ASP.NET Core with JWT Bearer, API Key, Refresh Tokens with rotation, and dynamic claim policies — all wired up with a single fluent call.
Why AspNetCoreAuthKit?
Every ASP.NET Core project ends up writing the same boilerplate:
JWT configuration, API Key middleware, refresh token logic, claim-based policies.
AspNetCoreAuthKit wraps all of this into a clean, testable, opt-in abstraction.
🔐 JWT Bearer — generate, validate and refresh tokens with one method call
🔑 API Key — header or query string, static list or custom async validator
♻️ Refresh Tokens — token rotation, revoke single device or all devices
🛡️ Dynamic claim policies — [RequireClaim("role", "admin")] without manual registration
📋 Common policies — AdminOnly, AuthenticatedUser, ApiKeyOrJwt out of the box
🔀 Multi-scheme — JWT and API Key in parallel on the same app
🧩 Extensible — plug in your own IRefreshTokenStore (Redis, EF Core, etc.)
🧪 DI-ready — every module is opt-in, nothing is registered unless you ask
Requirement
Minimum version
.NET
8.0+
ASP.NET Core
8.0+
dotnet add package AspNetCoreAuthKit
// Program.cs
builder . Services . AddAuthKit ( opt => opt
. UseJwt ( jwt =>
{
jwt . SecretKey = builder . Configuration [ "Auth:SecretKey" ] ! ;
jwt . Issuer = "myapp" ;
jwt . Audience = "myapp-users" ;
jwt . AccessTokenExpiry = TimeSpan . FromMinutes ( 15 ) ;
} )
. UseApiKey ( key =>
{
key . HeaderName = "X-Api-Key" ;
key . ValidKeys = builder . Configuration
. GetSection ( "Auth:ApiKeys" ) . Get < string [ ] > ( ) ! ;
} )
. UseRefreshTokens ( )
. UseAuthorization ( )
) ;
app . UseAuthentication ( ) ;
app . UseAuthorization ( ) ;
2. Generate a token at login
app . MapPost ( "/auth/login" , async ( LoginRequest req ,
IJwtTokenService tokenService ,
IRefreshTokenStore store ) =>
{
// validate credentials...
var result = tokenService . GenerateToken ( new TokenRequest
{
Subject = user . Id ,
Claims = [ new Claim ( "role" , user . Role ) ]
} ) ;
await store . SaveAsync ( result . RefreshToken , new RefreshTokenEntry
{
Subject = user . Id ,
ExpiresAt = DateTimeOffset . UtcNow . AddDays ( 7 )
} ) ;
return Results . Ok ( result ) ;
// { accessToken, refreshToken, expiresAt }
} ) ;
app . MapPost ( "/auth/refresh" , async ( RefreshRequest req ,
IRefreshTokenService refreshService ) =>
{
try
{
var result = await refreshService . RefreshAsync (
req . AccessToken ,
req . RefreshToken ) ;
return Results . Ok ( result ) ;
}
catch ( RefreshTokenException )
{
return Results . Unauthorized ( ) ;
}
} ) ;
4. Protect endpoints with policies
// Built-in policies
app . MapDelete ( "/users/{id}" , ... ) . RequireAuthorization ( CommonPolicies . AdminOnly ) ;
app . MapGet ( "/dashboard" , ... ) . RequireAuthorization ( CommonPolicies . ApiKeyOrJwt ) ;
// Declarative claim attribute — no manual policy registration needed
[ RequireClaim ( "role" , "admin" ) ]
public IActionResult DeleteUser ( int id ) => Ok ( ) ;
// Multiple accepted values (OR logic)
[ RequireClaim ( "role" , "admin" , "moderator" ) ]
public IActionResult BanUser ( int id ) => Ok ( ) ;
AspNetCoreAuthKit implements token rotation by default: every refresh invalidates the old token and issues a new pair.
Operation
Method
Refresh access token
refreshService.RefreshAsync(accessToken, refreshToken)
Logout single device
refreshService.RevokeAsync(refreshToken)
Logout all devices
refreshService.RevokeAllAsync(subject)
Custom store (Redis, EF Core, etc.)
public class RedisRefreshTokenStore : IRefreshTokenStore { ... }
. UseRefreshTokens ( rt =>
{
rt . CustomStore = typeof ( RedisRefreshTokenStore ) ;
} )
Method
Description
GenerateToken(TokenRequest)
Generates a new access + refresh token pair
ValidateToken(string)
Validates a token, returns ClaimsPrincipal?
ValidateTokenIgnoreExpiry(string)
Validates ignoring lifetime (used during refresh)
GenerateRefreshToken()
Generates a cryptographically secure random token
Property
Type
Description
Subject
string
User ID or unique identifier (required)
Claims
IEnumerable<Claim>
Additional claims to embed in the token
ExpiresIn
TimeSpan?
Per-token expiry override
Constant
Behaviour
CommonPolicies.AuthenticatedUser
Any authenticated user
CommonPolicies.AdminOnly
Requires admin role claim
CommonPolicies.ApiKeyOrJwt
Accepts either scheme
⚙️ Configuration Reference
Option
Type
Default
Description
SecretKey
string
(required)
HMAC signing key — validated at startup
Issuer
string
""
Token issuer
Audience
string
""
Token audience
AccessTokenExpiry
TimeSpan
1 hour
Access token lifetime
RefreshTokenExpiry
TimeSpan
7 days
Refresh token lifetime
Algorithm
string
HmacSha256
Signing algorithm
ClockSkew
TimeSpan
30 seconds
Clock skew tolerance
Option
Type
Default
Description
HeaderName
string
X-Api-Key
Header to read the key from
QueryParamName
string?
null
Query param name (disabled by default)
ValidKeys
string[]
[]
Static list of valid keys
ValidateKeyAsync
Func<string, Task<bool>>?
null
Custom async validator (overrides ValidKeys)
AuthKitAuthorizationOptions
Option
Type
Default
Description
RoleClaimType
string
"role"
Claim type used for roles
AdminRoleValue
string
"admin"
Value that identifies an admin
IJwtTokenService and IRefreshTokenStore are plain interfaces — mock them directly in unit tests:
var tokenServiceMock = new Mock < IJwtTokenService > ( ) ;
tokenServiceMock
. Setup ( s => s . GenerateToken ( It . IsAny < TokenRequest > ( ) ) )
. Returns ( new TokenResult
{
AccessToken = "mocked.jwt.token" ,
RefreshToken = "mocked-refresh-token" ,
ExpiresAt = DateTimeOffset . UtcNow . AddMinutes ( 15 )
} ) ;
If you find AspNetCoreAuthKit useful, consider sponsoring its development.
MIT — see LICENSE for details.