Chat Authentication

Two independent checks — what the token allows, and what membership allows — and why a token can only narrow, never widen, a role.

A chat token and an RTC token are minted separately, signed with different keys, and neither works on the other plane — a leak on one never compromises the other.

const token = await raven.chat.createToken({
  userId: 'alice',
  conversations: [conversation.publicId],
  expiresIn: 3600, // optional, seconds
});

from raven import CreateChatTokenParams
 
token = raven.chat.create_token(
    CreateChatTokenParams(user_id="alice", conversations=[conversation["publicId"]], expires_in=3600)
)

Two independent checks

The token says who you are and what you may do in general: a project, a user identity, an expiry, an optional list of conversations, and a set of scopes.

Membership says which conversations you actually belong to, and at what role. A role (MEMBER, MODERATOR, ADMIN) per conversation determines which scopes are available — a token can narrow what a role allows but never widen it, so handing out an intentionally limited token is always safe.

Scope	Grants
`chat:read`	read messages, history, presence, read receipts
`chat:send`	send/edit/delete your own messages, react, type
`chat:moderate`	delete anyone's message
`chat:manage`	reconfigure the conversation

What the server never trusts from a browser

The sender identity always comes from the signed token, never a field in the request body — and system/event message types require a project API key, so a connected user can't fabricate an official-looking announcement. See Moderation for how the chat:moderate scope is actually enforced.

Common errors

Error	Why	Fix
`chat:send` missing	The member's role doesn't grant it (rare — `MEMBER` has it by default), or the token narrowed it away.	Check the role via Members; check the token's `scopes`.
Token works for one conversation but not another	`conversations` on the token didn't include it.	Omit `conversations` to allow every conversation the user belongs to, or list it explicitly.

Production notes

Mint a token per authenticated session, not one long-lived token reused across logins.
Pass scopes through from your own role check if you have one — it can only narrow, never widen, so it's safe to forward without re-validating server-side.

Quickstart
Members — how roles get assigned
Authentication → Tokens — the shared token shape across RTC and Chat

API reference

raven.chat.createToken() (Node.js) / raven.chat.create_token() (Python) — see Node.js SDK and Python SDK.