---
title: Secure Django (Python) API Application with ZITADEL
description: "Integrate ZITADEL with Django Python to validate tokens and check permissions for secure API access using OIDC protocol standards"
sidebar_label: Django API
---

import AppJWT from '../imports/_app_jwt.mdx';
import ServiceAccountJWT from '../imports/_serviceaccount_jwt.mdx';
import ServiceAccountRole from '../imports/_serviceaccount_role.mdx';
import SetupPython from '../imports/_setup_python.mdx';

This integration guide demonstrates the recommended way to incorporate ZITADEL into your Django Python application.
It explains how to check the token validity in the API and how to check for permissions.

By the end of this guide, your application will have three different endpoints that are public, private (valid token) and private-scoped (valid token with a specific role).

<Callout>
This documentation references our [example](https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth) on GitHub.
</Callout>

## ZITADEL setup

Before we can start building our application, we have to do a few setup steps in the ZITADEL Management Console.

### Create application

<AppJWT components={props.components} />

### Create Service Account

<ServiceAccountJWT components={props.components} />

### Assign a role to the Service Account

<ServiceAccountRole components={props.components} />

### Prerequisites

At the end you should have the following for the API:
- Issuer, something like `https://example.zitadel.cloud` or `http://localhost:8080`
- Introspection URL, something like `https://example.zitadel.cloud/oauth/v2/introspect`
- Token URL, something like `https://example.zitadel.cloud/oauth/v2/token`
- `.json`-key-file for the API, from the application
- ID of the project

And the following from the Service Account:
- `.json`-key-file from the service account

## Setup new Django application

### Setup Python

<SetupPython components={props.components} />

### Install dependencies

For this example we need the following dependencies:
- `django`: to create an API with django
- `python-dotenv`: to use environment variables in the settings
- `authlib`: client-side OAuth functionality
- `requests`: HTTP requests for the introspection

For the dependencies we need a requirements.txt-file with the following content:

<GithubCodeBlock url="https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/blob/main/requirements.txt" />

Then install all dependencies with:
```bash
python -m pip install -U requirements.txt
```

Then in your folder of choice, call the following command to create a Django base:
```bash
django-admin startproject myapi .
```

## Define the Django API

### Add to the settings.py to include ZITADEL info

There is info needed for the introspection calls, which we put into the settings.py:

<GithubCodeBlock url="https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/blob/main/myapi/settings.py#L125-L133" />

and create a ".env"-file in the root folder with the settings as an example:
```bash
ZITADEL_INTROSPECTION_URL = 'URL to the introspection endpoint to verify the provided token'
ZITADEL_DOMAIN = 'Domain used as audience in the token verification'
API_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_PATH = 'Path to the key.json created in ZITADEL'
```

I should look something like this:

```bash
ZITADEL_INTROSPECTION_URL = 'https://example.zitadel.cloud/oauth/v2/introspect'
ZITADEL_DOMAIN = 'https://example.zitadel.cloud'
API_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_PATH = '/tmp/example/250719519163548112.json'
```

### Validator definition

To validate the tokens, we need a validator which can be called in the event of API-calls.

validator.py:
<GithubCodeBlock url="https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/blob/main/myapi/validator.py" />

### Requests and URLs

We define 3 different endpoints which differ in terms of requirements.
views.py:
<GithubCodeBlock url="https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/blob/main/myapi/views.py" />

To handle endpoints the urls have to be added to the urls.py:
<GithubCodeBlock url="https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/blob/main/myapi/urls.py" />

### DB

Create and run migrations:

```bash
python manage.py migrate
```

### Run

You can use a local Django server to test the application.

```bash
python manage.py runserver
```

### Call the API

To call the API you need an access token, which is then verified by ZITADEL.
Please follow [this guide here](/guides/integrate/token-introspection/private-key-jwt), ignoring the first step as we already have the `.json`-key-file from the serviceaccount.

Optionally set the token as an environment variable:
```
export TOKEN='MtjHodGy4zxKylDOhg6kW90WeEQs2q...'
```

With the access token, you can then do the following calls:
```
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/public
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/private
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/private-scoped
```

## Completion

Congratulations! You have successfully integrated your Django API with ZITADEL!

If you get stuck, consider checking out our [example](https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth) application. This application includes all the functionalities mentioned in this quick-start. You can start by cloning the repository and defining the settings in the settings.py. If you face issues, contact us or raise an issue on [GitHub](https://github.com/zitadel/example-python-django-oauth/issues).