Token Expiration — Proposed Guide

Token Expiration: Expiration bounds the time a credential may be accepted. An expired token should not be made valid by retrying the same request with the…

Overview

Expiration bounds the time a credential may be accepted. An expired token should not be made valid by retrying the same request with the same credential.

Key concepts

Separate issued-at, expiry and allowable clock skew. Access-token lifetime and session lifetime may be different policy decisions.

Implementation considerations

Do not assume perpetual access or a fixed lifetime. A future contract must define how a client detects expiry and when reauthorization is required.

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.

{
  "reference_only": true,
  "topic": "Token Expiration",
  "issued_at": "2026-01-15T12:00:00Z",
  "expires_at": "2026-01-15T12:00:00Z",
  "clock_skew_seconds": 1
}

Design review checklist

• Document which organization owns the token expiration representation and which actor may view or change it.
• Test the boundaries of issued at, expires at, clock skew seconds 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

Related documentation