Python 2.7 has reached end of support
and will bedeprecatedon January 31, 2026. After deprecation, you won't be able to deploy Python 2.7
applications, even if your organization previously used an organization policy to
re-enable deployments of legacy runtimes. Your existing Python
2.7 applications will continue to run and receive traffic after theirdeprecation date. We recommend that
youmigrate to the latest supported version of Python.
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Region ID
TheREGION_IDis an abbreviated code that Google assigns
based on the region you select when you create your app. The code does not
correspond to a country or province, even though some region IDs may appear
similar to commonly used country and province codes. For apps created after
February 2020,REGION_ID.ris included in
App Engine URLs. For existing apps created before this date, the
region ID is optional in the URL.
The App Identity API lets an application discover its application ID (also
called theproject ID). Using
the ID, an App Engine application can assert its identity to other App Engine
Apps, Google APIs, and third-party applications and services. The
application ID can also be used to generate a URL or email address, or to make
a run-time decision.
Getting the project ID
The project ID can be found using theapp_identity.get_application_id()method. The WSGI or CGI environment exposes
some implementation details, which are handled by the API.
Getting the application hostname
By default, App Engine apps are served from URLs in the formhttps://PROJECT_ID.REGION_ID.r.appspot.com, where the project ID is part of the hostname.
If an app is served from a custom domain, it may be necessary to retrieve the
entire hostname component. You can do this using theapp_identity.get_default_version_hostname()method.
Asserting identity to other App Engine apps
If you want to determine the identity of the App Engine app that is making a
request to your App Engine app, you can use the request headerX-Appengine-Inbound-Appid. This header is added to the request by the URLFetch
service and is not user modifiable, so it safely indicates the requesting
application's project ID, if present.
Requirements:
Only calls made to your app'sappspot.comdomain will contain
theX-Appengine-Inbound-Appidheader. Calls to custom domains
do not contain the header.
Your requests must be set to not follow redirects.
Set theurlfetch.fetch()follow_redirectsparameter toFalse.
In your application handler, you can check the incoming ID by reading theX-Appengine-Inbound-Appidheader and comparing it to a list of IDs allowed
to make requests. For example:
importwebapp2classMainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):allowed_app_ids=["other-app-id","other-app-id-2"]defget(self):incoming_app_id=self.request.headers.get("X-Appengine-Inbound-Appid",None)ifincoming_app_idnotinself.allowed_app_ids:self.abort(403)self.response.write("This is a protected page.")app=webapp2.WSGIApplication([("/",MainPage)],debug=True)
Asserting identity to Google APIs
Google APIs use the OAuth 2.0 protocol forauthentication and
authorization. The
App Identity API can create OAuth tokens that can be used to assert that the
source of a request is the application itself. Theget_access_token()method
returns an access token for a scope, or list of scopes. This token can then be
set in the HTTP headers of a call to identify the calling application.
The following example shows how to use the App Identity API to authenticate to the Cloud Storage API and retrieve and list of all buckets in the project.
importjsonimportloggingfromgoogle.appengine.apiimportapp_identityfromgoogle.appengine.apiimporturlfetchimportwebapp2classMainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):defget(self):auth_token,_=app_identity.get_access_token("https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform")logging.info("Using token{}to represent identity{}".format(auth_token,app_identity.get_service_account_name()))response=urlfetch.fetch("https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b?project={}".format(app_identity.get_application_id()),method=urlfetch.GET,headers={"Authorization":"Bearer{}".format(auth_token)},)ifresponse.status_code!=200:raiseException("Call failed. Status code{}. Body{}".format(response.status_code,response.content))result=json.loads(response.content)self.response.headers["Content-Type"]="application/json"self.response.write(json.dumps(result,indent=2))app=webapp2.WSGIApplication([("/",MainPage)],debug=True)
Note that the application's identity is represented by the service account name, which is typicallyapplicationid@appspot.gserviceaccount.com. You can get the exact value by using theget_service_account_name()method.
For services which offer ACLs, you can grant the application access by granting this account access.
Asserting identity to third-party services
The token generated byget_access_token()only works against Google services. However you can use the underlying signing technology to assert the identity of your application to other services. Thesign_blob()method
will sign bytes using a private key unique to your application, and theget_public_certificates()method
will return certificates which can be used to validate the signature.
Here is an example showing how to sign a blob and validate its signature:
importbase64fromCrypto.HashimportSHA256fromCrypto.PublicKeyimportRSAfromCrypto.SignatureimportPKCS1_v1_5fromCrypto.Util.asn1importDerSequencefromgoogle.appengine.apiimportapp_identityimportwebapp2defverify_signature(data,signature,x509_certificate):"""Verifies a signature using the given x.509 public key certificate."""# PyCrypto 2.6 doesn't support x.509 certificates directly, so we'll need# to extract the public key from it manually.# This code is based on https://github.com/google/oauth2client/blob/master# /oauth2client/_pycrypto_crypt.pypem_lines=x509_certificate.replace(b" ",b"").split()cert_der=base64.urlsafe_b64decode(b"".join(pem_lines[1:-1]))cert_seq=DerSequence()cert_seq.decode(cert_der)tbs_seq=DerSequence()tbs_seq.decode(cert_seq[0])public_key=RSA.importKey(tbs_seq[6])signer=PKCS1_v1_5.new(public_key)digest=SHA256.new(data)returnsigner.verify(digest,signature)defverify_signed_by_app(data,signature):"""Checks the signature and data against all currently valid certificatesfor the application."""public_certificates=app_identity.get_public_certificates()forcertinpublic_certificates:ifverify_signature(data,signature,cert.x509_certificate_pem):returnTruereturnFalseclassMainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):defget(self):message="Hello, world!"signing_key_name,signature=app_identity.sign_blob(message)verified=verify_signed_by_app(message,signature)self.response.content_type="text/plain"self.response.write("Message:{}\n".format(message))self.response.write("Signature:{}\n".format(base64.b64encode(signature)))self.response.write("Verified:{}\n".format(verified))app=webapp2.WSGIApplication([("/",MainPage)],debug=True)
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003eREGION_ID\u003c/code\u003e is a Google-assigned code based on the region selected during app creation, included in App Engine URLs for apps created after February 2020, but it does not directly correspond to specific countries or provinces.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe App Identity API allows applications to find their project ID, which can be used for identity assertion with other App Engine apps, Google APIs, or third-party services, as well as generating URLs or email addresses.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eApp Engine apps can verify the identity of another App Engine app making a request by checking the \u003ccode\u003eX-Appengine-Inbound-Appid\u003c/code\u003e header, but this is only available for calls to the \u003ccode\u003eappspot.com\u003c/code\u003e domain and requires disabling redirects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe App Identity API's \u003ccode\u003eget_access_token()\u003c/code\u003e method generates OAuth 2.0 tokens for authentication with Google APIs, while the \u003ccode\u003esign_blob()\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eget_public_certificates()\u003c/code\u003e methods allow identity assertion with non-Google services through unique application-specific key signing.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEach application has access to a default Cloud Storage bucket that includes free storage and I/O quota, the name of which can be retrieved via the \u003ccode\u003eget_default_gcs_bucket_name\u003c/code\u003e method.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# App Identity API for legacy bundled services\n\n### Region ID\n\nThe \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eREGION_ID\u003c/var\u003e is an abbreviated code that Google assigns\nbased on the region you select when you create your app. The code does not\ncorrespond to a country or province, even though some region IDs may appear\nsimilar to commonly used country and province codes. For apps created after\nFebruary 2020, \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eREGION_ID\u003c/var\u003e`.r` is included in\nApp Engine URLs. For existing apps created before this date, the\nregion ID is optional in the URL.\n\nLearn more\n[about region IDs](/appengine/docs/legacy/standard/python/how-requests-are-routed#region-id). \nOK\n\nThe App Identity API lets an application discover its application ID (also\ncalled the [project ID](https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6158840)). Using\nthe ID, an App Engine application can assert its identity to other App Engine\nApps, Google APIs, and third-party applications and services. The\napplication ID can also be used to generate a URL or email address, or to make\na run-time decision.\n| This API is supported for first-generation runtimes and can be used when [upgrading to corresponding second-generation runtimes](/appengine/docs/standard/\n| python3\n|\n| /services/access). If you are updating to the App Engine Python 3 runtime, refer to the [migration guide](/appengine/migration-center/standard/migrate-to-second-gen/python-differences) to learn about your migration options for legacy bundled services.\n\nGetting the project ID\n----------------------\n\nThe project ID can be found using the\n\n\n`app_identity.get_application_id()`method. The WSGI or CGI environment exposes\nsome implementation details, which are handled by the API.\n\n\nGetting the application hostname\n--------------------------------\n\nBy default, App Engine apps are served from URLs in the form\n\n`https://`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e`.`\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"#appengine-urls\" style=\"border-bottom: 1px dotted #999\" class=\"devsite-dialog-button\" data-modal-dialog-id=\"regional_url\" track-type=\"progressiveHelp\" track-name=\"modalHelp\" track-metadata-goal=\"regionalURL\"\u003eREGION_ID\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/var\u003e`.r.appspot.com`, where the project ID is part of the hostname.\nIf an app is served from a custom domain, it may be necessary to retrieve the\nentire hostname component. You can do this using the `app_identity.get_default_version_hostname()` method.\n\nAsserting identity to other App Engine apps\n-------------------------------------------\n\nIf you want to determine the identity of the App Engine app that is making a\nrequest to your App Engine app, you can use the request header\n`X-Appengine-Inbound-Appid`. This header is added to the request by the URLFetch\nservice and is not user modifiable, so it safely indicates the requesting\napplication's project ID, if present.\n\n**Requirements**:\n\n- Only calls made to your app's `appspot.com` domain will contain the `X-Appengine-Inbound-Appid` header. Calls to custom domains do not contain the header.\n- Your requests must be set to not follow redirects. Set the `urlfetch.fetch()` [`follow_redirects`](/appengine/docs/legacy/standard/python/refdocs/google.appengine.api.urlfetch#google.appengine.api.urlfetch.fetch) parameter to `False`.\n\nIn your application handler, you can check the incoming ID by reading the\n`X-Appengine-Inbound-Appid` header and comparing it to a list of IDs allowed\nto make requests. For example: \n\n import webapp2\n\n\n class MainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):\n allowed_app_ids = [\"other-app-id\", \"other-app-id-2\"]\n\n def get(self):\n incoming_app_id = self.request.headers.get(\"X-Appengine-Inbound-Appid\", None)\n\n if incoming_app_id not in self.allowed_app_ids:\n self.abort(403)\n\n self.response.write(\"This is a protected page.\")\n\n\n app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([(\"/\", MainPage)], debug=True)\n\nAsserting identity to Google APIs\n---------------------------------\n\nGoogle APIs use the OAuth 2.0 protocol for [authentication and\nauthorization](https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2). The\nApp Identity API can create OAuth tokens that can be used to assert that the\nsource of a request is the application itself. The `get_access_token()` method\nreturns an access token for a scope, or list of scopes. This token can then be\nset in the HTTP headers of a call to identify the calling application.\nThe following example shows how to use the App Identity API to authenticate to the Cloud Storage API and retrieve and list of all buckets in the project. **Note:** the [Google API Client Libraries](https://developers.google.com/discovery/libraries) can also manage much of this for you automatically. \n\n import json\n import logging\n\n from google.appengine.api import app_identity\n from google.appengine.api import urlfetch\n import webapp2\n\n\n class MainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):\n def get(self):\n auth_token, _ = app_identity.get_access_token(\n \"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform\"\n )\n logging.info(\n \"Using token {} to represent identity {}\".format(\n auth_token, app_identity.get_service_account_name()\n )\n )\n\n response = urlfetch.fetch(\n \"https://www.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b?project={}\".format(\n app_identity.get_application_id()\n ),\n method=urlfetch.GET,\n headers={\"Authorization\": \"Bearer {}\".format(auth_token)},\n )\n\n if response.status_code != 200:\n raise Exception(\n \"Call failed. Status code {}. Body {}\".format(\n response.status_code, response.content\n )\n )\n\n result = json.loads(response.content)\n self.response.headers[\"Content-Type\"] = \"application/json\"\n self.response.write(json.dumps(result, indent=2))\n\n\n app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([(\"/\", MainPage)], debug=True)\n\nNote that the application's identity is represented by the service account name, which is typically *applicationid@appspot.gserviceaccount.com* . You can get the exact value by using the `get_service_account_name()` method.\nFor services which offer ACLs, you can grant the application access by granting this account access.\n\nAsserting identity to third-party services\n------------------------------------------\n\nThe token generated by `get_access_token()`\nonly works against Google services. However you can use the underlying signing technology to assert the identity of your application to other services. The `sign_blob()` method\nwill sign bytes using a private key unique to your application, and the `get_public_certificates()` method\nwill return certificates which can be used to validate the signature.\n| **Note:** The certificates may be rotated from time to time, and the method may return multiple certificates. Only certificates that are currently valid are returned; if you store signed messages you will need additional key management in order to verify signatures later.\nHere is an example showing how to sign a blob and validate its signature: \n\n\n import base64\n\n from Crypto.Hash import SHA256\n from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA\n from Crypto.Signature import PKCS1_v1_5\n from Crypto.Util.asn1 import DerSequence\n from google.appengine.api import app_identity\n import webapp2\n\n\n def verify_signature(data, signature, x509_certificate):\n \"\"\"Verifies a signature using the given x.509 public key certificate.\"\"\"\n\n # PyCrypto 2.6 doesn't support x.509 certificates directly, so we'll need\n # to extract the public key from it manually.\n # This code is based on https://github.com/google/oauth2client/blob/master\n # /oauth2client/_pycrypto_crypt.py\n pem_lines = x509_certificate.replace(b\" \", b\"\").split()\n cert_der = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(b\"\".join(pem_lines[1:-1]))\n cert_seq = DerSequence()\n cert_seq.decode(cert_der)\n tbs_seq = DerSequence()\n tbs_seq.decode(cert_seq[0])\n public_key = RSA.importKey(tbs_seq[6])\n\n signer = PKCS1_v1_5.new(public_key)\n digest = SHA256.new(data)\n\n return signer.verify(digest, signature)\n\n\n def verify_signed_by_app(data, signature):\n \"\"\"Checks the signature and data against all currently valid certificates\n for the application.\"\"\"\n public_certificates = app_identity.get_public_certificates()\n\n for cert in public_certificates:\n if verify_signature(data, signature, cert.x509_certificate_pem):\n return True\n\n return False\n\n\n class MainPage(webapp2.RequestHandler):\n def get(self):\n message = \"Hello, world!\"\n signing_key_name, signature = app_identity.sign_blob(message)\n verified = verify_signed_by_app(message, signature)\n\n self.response.content_type = \"text/plain\"\n self.response.write(\"Message: {}\\n\".format(message))\n self.response.write(\"Signature: {}\\n\".format(base64.b64encode(signature)))\n self.response.write(\"Verified: {}\\n\".format(verified))\n\n\n app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([(\"/\", MainPage)], debug=True)\n\nGetting the default Cloud Storage Bucket name\n---------------------------------------------\n\nEach application can have one default Cloud Storage bucket, which\nincludes\n[5GB of free storage and a free quota for I/O operations](/appengine/docs/quotas#Default_Gcs_Bucket).\n\nTo get the name of the default bucket,\n\nyou can use the App Identity API. Call\n[google.appengine.api.app_identity.app_identity.get_default_gcs_bucket_name](/appengine/docs/legacy/standard/python/refdocs/google.appengine.api.app_identity.app_identity)."]]