---
id: rauth
version: "0.7.3"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# rauth — A Python library for OAuth 1.0/a, 2.0, and Ofly.

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 1.2M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Rauth is a Python OAuth consumer library that wraps the Requests HTTP library to handle OAuth 1.0/a and OAuth 2.0 authentication flows. It abstracts away the complexity of signing requests, managing tokens, and exchanging credentials, letting you focus on making authenticated API calls to services that support OAuth.

The library provides service wrapper objects (like OAuth1Service) that encapsulate provider-specific endpoints and handle the multi-step authentication handshake. Once authenticated, you get an OAuth session object that behaves like a normal HTTP session but automatically signs requests with the correct OAuth credentials. The package was built for production use and reports 100% test coverage, but has not been maintained since 2017.

Use it for:

- Authenticate with Twitter, Flickr, or other OAuth 1.0 providers to fetch user data or post on behalf of a user.
- Build a web application that lets users log in via OAuth 2.0 (e.g., Google, GitHub) without storing passwords.
- Integrate Shutterfly's Ofly authentication into a photo-sharing application.
- Automate API calls to OAuth-protected services while managing token refresh and expiration.
- Prototype OAuth flows in a command-line tool or script without writing low-level HTTP signing logic.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Rauth provides OAuth 1.0/a and OAuth 2.0 consumer support for Python applications, enabling authenticated requests to services like Twitter without handling low-level protocol details.

No. While rauth is permissively licensed and has low install friction, it has been abandoned since 2017 with no maintenance or security updates. OAuth specifications and provider APIs have evolved significantly; compatibility with modern Python versions is unverified and likely broken. For new projects, use actively maintained alternatives like authlib or oauthlib. Only consider rauth if you are maintaining legacy code already using it and cannot migrate.

## Install

pip install rauth
uv add rauth
poetry add rauth

## Installing rauth

Before you install: Installation is straightforward with no runtime dependencies. However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2017-01-22 and the repository was archived. No maintenance or security updates are available.

License in practice: Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you may use, modify, and distribute rauth freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install rauth

from rauth import OAuth1Service

twitter = OAuth1Service(
    name='twitter',
    consumer_key='YOUR_KEY',
    consumer_secret='YOUR_SECRET',
    request_token_url='https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token',
    access_token_url='https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token',
    authorize_url='https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize',
    base_url='https://api.twitter.com/1.1/')

request_token, request_token_secret = twitter.get_request_token()

Package targets Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.3; compatibility with modern Python versions (3.8+) is unverified and likely broken due to abandonment.

Verify before relying:

- Whether rauth works reliably with Python 3.8 and later versions given its abandonment since 2017.
- Current OAuth provider compatibility—API endpoints and authentication flows may have changed since the last release.
- Whether Requests v1.x dependency specification still resolves correctly with modern pip resolvers.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 1.2M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

oauth 1.0 python library, oauth 2.0 consumer, twitter authentication python, oauth session management, requests oauth wrapper, oauth-legacy, authentication

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/rauth) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/rauth/)