Refresh Tokens — Proposed Guide

Planned API — Reference Only

Refresh Tokens: A refresh token could permit renewal of an access grant without repeating the original authorization. It is a distinct credential and…

Overview

A refresh token could permit renewal of an access grant without repeating the original authorization. It is a distinct credential and should not be sent to resource endpoints as an access token.

Key concepts

Consider rotation, replay detection and linkage to the original consent. Revoking an authorization grant should have a defined effect on its refresh-token family.

Implementation considerations

No token exchange is implemented. A future client must store refresh credentials outside source code and must not expose them to browser logs.

Illustrative data model

This local fixture shows a possible representation for the concepts above. It is not an endpoint response, production configuration or a claim that the described capability is implemented.

JSON fixture

Fictional concept fixture

{
  "reference_only": true,
  "topic": "Refresh Tokens",
  "grant_id": "grant_example_123",
  "token_family_id": "token_family_example_123",
  "expires_at": "2026-01-15T12:00:00Z"
}

Design review checklist

Document which organization owns the refresh tokens representation and which actor may view or change it.
Test the boundaries of grant id, token family id, expires at using synthetic values, including missing or inconsistent references.
Before future implementation, obtain an approved contract and review failure behavior. This documentation does not authorize production activation.

Proposed data types

Illustrative field dictionary
Name	Type	Description
grant_id	string	Stable fictional grant reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.
token_family_id	string	Stable fictional token family reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.
expires_at	string (date-time)	Synthetic UTC timestamp. Business occurrence time may differ from delivery or processing time.

Access Tokens

Authentication

Token Expiration