Authentication

OAuth 1.0a Flow

flickr-cli uses OAuth 1.0a for Flickr API authentication.

First-time Setup

flickr auth login --perms write

This will:

1. Prompt for API key and secret (or read from env/flags)
2. Open browser for Flickr authorization
3. Complete the OAuth callback exchange
4. Save credentials to config

Environment Variables

FLICKR_API_KEY
FLICKR_API_SECRET
FLICKR_OAUTH_TOKEN
FLICKR_OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET

Check Status

flickr auth status --json

Logout

flickr auth logout

Config Schema

Credentials are stored in:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/flickr-cli/config.yaml
~/.config/flickr-cli/config.yaml

current_profile: default
profiles:
  default:
    api_key: "REDACTED"
    api_secret: "REDACTED"
    oauth_token: "REDACTED"
    oauth_token_secret: "REDACTED"
    permissions: "write"
    user:
      nsid: "123@N00"
      username: "username"
      fullname: "Full Name"
    created_at: "2026-06-02T12:00:00Z"
    updated_at: "2026-06-02T12:00:00Z"
    cache_path: "~/.cache/flickr-cli/default.sqlite"
    audit_log_path: "~/.local/state/flickr-cli/audit-default.jsonl"
    backup:
      dest: "./flickr-backup"
      metadata: "json"
      resume: false
    upload:
      dedupe: "checksum"

Environment variables override config values at runtime:

FLICKR_API_KEY
FLICKR_API_SECRET
FLICKR_OAUTH_TOKEN
FLICKR_OAUTH_TOKEN_SECRET

Profiles

Multiple accounts via profiles:

flickr auth login --profile work --perms write
flickr auth status --profile work

Non-interactive (OOB)

For headless/CI environments:

flickr auth login --callback oob --perms write