Authentication

Journey accepts two kinds of credentials. End-user requests authenticate with a Canvas JWT issued by Canvas LMS; this is the token external API consumers will use. Inter-service traffic from other Instructure services authenticates with either a static service token or a signed service JWT that Journey itself mints when calling out. Both end-user and service-token credentials are sent as Authorization: Bearer <token> headers.

Canvas JWT

Canvas issues the JWT that grants access to Journey. The token must be signed with RS256 against the issuer's JWKS endpoint (<issuer>/internal/services/jwks). Journey validates the signature, iss (issuer), and aud (audience) using configured values, then enforces the following claims:

• sub — Canvas user global ID

• domain — Canvas domain the token was issued for

• user_uuid — Canvas user UUID

• root_account_uuid — Canvas root account UUID

• workflows — must include the configured workflow name (case-insensitive)

Standard JWT claims (jti, iat, nbf, exp) are also expected. Expiration is enforced via the exp claim; Journey does not refresh tokens, and clients must obtain a fresh JWT from Canvas when one expires.

Tokens are extracted from the Authorization: Bearer <token> header only — cookies and query parameters are not consulted. Validation works identically for both REST and GraphQL requests.

On success the authenticated identity exposes:

• id — Canvas global user ID (from sub)

• rootAccountUuid — from root_account_uuid

• issuerUrl — from iss

• internalId — Journey's internal user UUID (provisioned on first sign-in)

Example request

curl https://journey-server-prod.us-east-1.core.inseng.io/api/v1/programs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."

If the token is missing, malformed, expired, signed with the wrong key, or fails any of the claim checks above, the request is rejected with 401 Unauthorized.

Service token

A shared-secret bearer token used by trusted callers (typically other Instructure services or operational tooling) to bypass Canvas JWT validation for select endpoints. The configured token must be at least 12 characters, and a request's Authorization: Bearer value must match it exactly.

Example request

curl https://journey-server-prod.us-east-1.core.inseng.io/internal/some-endpoint \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERVICE_TOKEN"

This credential is intended for internal use only and is not issued to external API consumers.

Service JWT (outbound)

For outbound calls from Journey to other Instructure services, Journey mints a short-lived JWT. These tokens are signed with HS512 using a per-service shared secret and carry the calling user's Canvas identifiers (user_global_id, user_uuid, root_account_uuid, canvas_domain) plus a feature_slug. Each token has a one-hour lifetime (exp = iat + 3600).

Journey does not accept inbound service JWTs on its own endpoints — they are only produced for downstream calls.

Errors

A missing, malformed, or invalid token results in 401 Unauthorized. A valid token whose subject lacks the necessary Canvas permission for the target resource results in 403 Forbidden — see permissions. For the full error envelope and additional status codes, see errors.