authenticate a wikitree member via clientlogin and read session-gated data (private/trusted profiles, personal watchlist)
domain: wikitree.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Redirect the user's browser to https://api.wikitree.com/api.php?action=clientLogin&returnURL=<encoded app URL> so they log in with WikiTree credentials directly at api.wikitree.com
On return, read the authcode query parameter and POST it back to action=clientLogin to confirm login (response includes result=success, user_id, user_name)
For all later API calls, send the browser's api.wikitree.com session cookie (e.g. withCredentials=true) — the authcode itself is not reused as a token
Call action=getWatchlist (params: limit, getPerson, fields) to read the logged-in member's watchlist, or call getProfile/getAncestors on a profile that has this member on its Trusted List
Optionally call action=clientLogin&checkLogin=<user_id> to verify session validity, or doLogout=1 to end the session
Known gotchas
Auth is cookie/session-based tied to the api.wikitree.com hostname, not a bearer token that gets replayed on each request
The documented public API is read-oriented (profile/ancestor/watchlist reads); no editProfile or other write/mutation action is documented, so profile-editing via API should not be assumed to exist
Non-browser/offline scripts must manage the session cookie themselves — there is no separate API-key auth mode for scripts
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