Build API clients for Python with Microsoft identity authentication

In this tutorial, you generate an API client that uses Microsoft identity authentication to access Microsoft Graph.

Required tools

• Python 3.8+
• pip 20.0+
• asyncio or any other supported async environment, for example, AnyIO, Trio.

Create a project

Create a directory to contain the new project.

Add dependencies

Before you can compile and run the generated API client, you need to make sure the generated source files are part of a project with the required dependencies. Your project must have a reference to the abstraction package. Additionally, you must either use the Kiota default implementations or provide your own custom implementations of the following packages.

• Authentication (Kiota default Azure authentication)
• HTTP (Kiota default HTTPX-based implementation)
• JSON serialization (Kiota default)
• Text serialization (Kiota default)

For this tutorial, use the default implementations.

Run the following commands to get the required dependencies.

pip install microsoft-kiota-abstractions
pip install microsoft-kiota-authentication-azure
pip install microsoft-kiota-http
pip install microsoft-kiota-serialization-json
pip install microsoft-kiota-serialization-text
pip install azure-identity

Generate the API client

Kiota generates API clients from OpenAPI documents. Create a file named get-me.yml and add the following.

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Microsoft Graph get user API
  version: 1.0.0
servers:
  - url: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/
paths:
  /me:
    get:
      responses:
        200:
          description: Success!
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: "#/components/schemas/microsoft.graph.user"
components:
  schemas:
    microsoft.graph.user:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: string
        displayName:
          type: string

You can then use the Kiota command line tool to generate the API client classes.

kiota generate -l python -d get-me.yml -c GetUserApiClient -n client -o ./client

Register an application

To be able to authenticate with the Microsoft identity platform and get an access token for Microsoft Graph, you need to create an application registration. You can install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK and use it to create the app registration, or register the app manually in the Azure Active Directory admin center.

The following instructions register an app and enable device code flow for authentication.

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Application.ReadWrite.All"
$app = New-MgApplication -displayName "Kiota Test Client" -IsFallbackPublicClient

> $app.AppId
1cddd83e-eda6-4c65-bccf-920a86f220ab

Create the client application

Create a file in the root of the project named get_user.py and add the following code. Replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID with the client ID from your app registration.

import asyncio
from azure.identity import DeviceCodeCredential
from kiota_authentication_azure.azure_identity_authentication_provider import (
    AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider)
from kiota_http.httpx_request_adapter import HttpxRequestAdapter
from client.get_user_api_client import GetUserApiClient

async def main():
    # You may need this if your're using asyncio on windows
    # See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63860576
    # asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy())

    client_id = 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID'
    graph_scopes = ['User.Read']

    credential = DeviceCodeCredential(client_id)
    auth_provider = AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider(credential, scopes=graph_scopes)

    request_adapter = HttpxRequestAdapter(auth_provider)
    client = GetUserApiClient(request_adapter)

    user_me = await client.me.get()
    print(f"Hello {user_me.display_name}, your ID is {user_me.id}")

# Run main
asyncio.run(main())

Run the application

To start the application, run the following command in your project directory.

python3 get_user.py

See also

• kiota-samples repository contains the code from this guide.
• ToDoItem Sample API implements a sample OpenAPI in ASP.NET Core and sample clients in multiple languages.