JWT - A modular JSON Web Token library for Go.

go get -u github.com/a-novel-kit/jwt

Per the specification:

JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties. The claims in a JWT are encoded as a JSON object that is used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) structure or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) structure, enabling the claims to be digitally signed or integrity protected with a Message Authentication Code (MAC) and/or encrypted.

This library was built in frustration of existing solutions, which felt complicated to setup / unintuitive to use. Some goal highlights:

• Modularity: JWT is a permissive standard. The library uses a plugin-based approach, which allows users to define their own extensions.
• Incremental complexity: Simple tasks can be done with simple code, while complex problems can be solved by writing custom plugins, tailored for the task.
• Low dependencies: Golang offers an amazing set of cryptographic tools, which made this library possible with bare cryptographic knowledge and low reliance on external entities.

As everything, those choices came with tradeoffs:

• As this library focuses on the compact base64 representation, the full JSON representation is not supported yet. This means that features, such as multiple signatures, are not supported.
• Some newer algorithms, especially those not yet integrated in the Go crypto framework, might temporarily lack.
• The default plugins follow the RFC specifications very strictly, some lose interpretations might not work out of the box.

Source specifications

JSON Web Token specification
JSON Web Algorithms specification
JSON Web Signature specification
JSON Web Encryption specification
JSON Web Keys specification