Generate tokens for testing

jwtop create lets you mint arbitrary JWTs from the command line — no server or auth infrastructure required. This is useful for seeding integration tests, populating CI environment variables, or reproducing production scenarios locally.

Quick token for a test suite

jwtop create --alg HS256 --secret testsecret \
  --sub user-42 --iss myapp --exp 1h --iat

Capture the output in a variable:

export TEST_TOKEN=$(jwtop create --alg HS256 --secret testsecret \
  --sub user-42 --exp 1h --iat)

Token with custom claims

Use --claim key=value (repeatable) to add any payload field:

jwtop create --alg HS256 --secret testsecret \
  --sub user-42 \
  --claim role=admin \
  --claim plan=pro \
  --claim verified=true \
  --claim account_id=9001

Values are auto-parsed: 9001 becomes an integer, true becomes a boolean, everything else stays a string.

Short-lived tokens (expiry testing)

# Expires in 30 seconds — useful for testing expiry handling
jwtop create --alg HS256 --secret testsecret --sub user-1 --exp 30s

Generate a signing key or secret

jwtop genkey produces key material with enforced minimum-strength parameters (RSA ≥ 2048 bits, HMAC secret ≥ the MAC output size, crypto/rand only):

# Random HS256 secret for a test suite
export TEST_SECRET=$(jwtop genkey --alg HS256)

# RSA key pair on disk: test-private.pem (0600) + test-private.pem.pub (0644)
jwtop genkey --alg RS256 --out test-private.pem

See the genkey reference for every flag.

Asymmetric key tokens (RS256 / ES256)

# Generate a key pair once
jwtop genkey --alg RS256 --out test-private.pem
# (or: openssl genrsa -out test-private.pem 2048 && openssl rsa -in test-private.pem -pubout -out test-private.pem.pub)

# Mint a token
jwtop create --alg RS256 --key test-private.pem --sub user-42 --exp 1h

# Verify it
jwtop verify $TOKEN --key test-private.pem.pub

In GitHub Actions

cerberauth/jwtop-action

- name: Generate test JWT
  uses: cerberauth/jwtop-action@v1
  id: jwt
  with:
    args: create --alg HS256 --secret ${{ secrets.TEST_SECRET }} --sub ci-user --exp 1h

- name: Export token
  run: echo "TEST_TOKEN=${{ steps.jwt.outputs.result }}" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"

CLI

- name: Install jwtop
  run: go install github.com/cerberauth/jwtop@latest

- name: Generate test JWT
  run: |
    TOKEN=$(jwtop create --alg HS256 \
      --secret "$TEST_SECRET" \
      --sub ci-user --exp 1h)
    echo "TEST_TOKEN=$TOKEN" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
  env:
    TEST_SECRET: ${{ secrets.TEST_SECRET }}