Based on the knowledge sources provided, I can answer your question about using Ory Hydra for OAuth2 authorization and the login & consent flow. When implementing OAuth2 authorization with Ory Hydra, you do not always need to provide an authToken to execute the login & consent flow. In fact, the login and consent endpoints in Hydra do not require authentication. This is evidenced by multiple sources: 1. [Hydra API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/hydra/reference/api) states for the

acceptOAuth2LoginRequest

method: "This operation does not require authentication." 2. [Hydra API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/hydra/reference/api) also mentions for the

acceptOAuth2ConsentRequest

method: "This operation does not require authentication." 3. [Hydra API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/hydra/reference/api) further confirms for the

getOAuth2LoginRequest

and

getOAuth2ConsentRequest

methods: "This operation does not require authentication." The login and consent flow in Ory Hydra is designed to be handled by external applications that you implement. These applications interact with Hydra's endpoints without requiring authentication. This allows for flexibility in implementing your own user management and consent handling systems. For example, the [User login and consent flow](https://www.ory.sh/docs/oauth2-oidc/custom-login-consent/flow#flow-steps) documentation outlines the steps of the flow, which involve redirects between Hydra, your login provider, and your consent provider, without mentioning any need for authentication tokens in these interactions. It's important to note that while the login and consent flow itself doesn't require authentication, other operations in Hydra (like managing OAuth2 clients or introspecting tokens) may require proper authentication.

Based on the information you've provided and the knowledge sources available, I can offer some insights into why you might be receiving this unauthorized error response. The error message you're seeing suggests that the endpoint you're trying to access is expecting authentication, which seems to contradict the information we discussed earlier about the login and consent flow not requiring authentication. This discrepancy could be due to a few reasons: 1. Endpoint Mismatch: You might be calling a different endpoint than the ones we discussed for the login and consent flow. Some Hydra endpoints do require authentication, as mentioned in the [Ory API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/reference/api) for certain methods like

getOAuth2ConsentRequest

. 2. Configuration Issue: Your Hydra instance might be configured differently from the default setup, possibly requiring authentication for endpoints that typically don't need it. 3. Network or Proxy Issues: There could be an intermediary service or proxy that's enforcing authentication before the request reaches Hydra. 4. Version Differences: The behavior might differ depending on the version of Hydra you're using. To troubleshoot this issue, I recommend the following steps: 1. Double-check that you're calling the correct endpoint for the login and consent flow. 2. Verify your Hydra configuration to ensure it matches the expected behavior for unauthenticated access to login and consent endpoints. 3. Check if there are any intermediary services between your client and Hydra that might be enforcing additional authentication. 4. Confirm the version of Hydra you're using and check if there are any known issues or changes related to authentication for these endpoints in your version. If the issue persists, it would be helpful to have more information about the specific endpoint you're calling and the full request details (excluding any sensitive information). Lastly, it's worth noting that there was a similar issue reported in the [Ory Network GitHub repository](https://github.com/ory/network/issues/269) where a user experienced problems with the userinfo endpoint not working with the Authorization header. While this is a different endpoint, it shows that authentication-related issues can occur and may require further investigation.