Extending session login time

.env.example

@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ AUTO_CREATE_TABLES=true
 COOKIE_NAME=access_token
 # Set true when serving over HTTPS.
 COOKIE_SECURE=false
+# How long a browser login lasts before being bounced back to /login.
+# Independent of ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES, which governs JSON API tokens.
+SESSION_TIMEOUT_HOURS=24
 
 # --- LDAP (optional; direct-bind) ---
 # When enabled, the login page and /api/auth/ldap-login accept a directory

README.md

@@ -149,8 +149,9 @@ Every setting is read from an environment variable first, then `.env`
 |----------|---------|-------|
 | `SECRET_KEY` | dev placeholder | **set a strong value in production** |
 | `DATABASE_URL` | `sqlite+aiosqlite:///./app.db` | use `postgresql+asyncpg://...` for Postgres |
-| `ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES` | `15` | |
+| `ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES` | `15` | JSON API bearer token lifetime |
 | `REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_DAYS` | `7` | |
+| `SESSION_TIMEOUT_HOURS` | `24` | browser login (HTMX UI cookie) lifetime |
 | `AUTO_CREATE_TABLES` | `true` | create tables on startup (dev); use Alembic in prod |
 | `COOKIE_SECURE` | `false` | set `true` behind HTTPS |
 | `FIRST_SUPERUSER_EMAIL` / `_PASSWORD` | admin@example.com / changethis | used by seed |

app/core/config.py

@@ -33,9 +33,13 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     database_url: str = "sqlite+aiosqlite:///./app.db"
     auto_create_tables: bool = True
 
-    # Web / cookies (the HTMX UI stores the access token in an httpOnly cookie)
+    # Web / cookies (the HTMX UI stores the access token in an httpOnly cookie).
+    # session_timeout_hours governs how long a browser login lasts before the
+    # user is bounced back to /login; it's independent of the JSON API's
+    # short-lived access_token_expire_minutes.
     cookie_name: str = "access_token"
     cookie_secure: bool = False
+    session_timeout_hours: int = 24
 
     # LDAP (direct-bind). When enabled, the login page offers an LDAP option.
     # At login the user's DN is built from ``ldap_bind_dn_template`` (with

app/core/security.py

@@ -47,10 +47,12 @@ def _create_token(
     return token, payload
 
 
-def create_access_token(subject: str | int) -> str:
+def create_access_token(
+    subject: str | int, expires_delta: timedelta | None = None
+) -> str:
     token, _ = _create_token(
         subject,
-        timedelta(minutes=settings.access_token_expire_minutes),
+        expires_delta or timedelta(minutes=settings.access_token_expire_minutes),
         ACCESS_TOKEN_TYPE,
     )
     return token

app/services/auth.py

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 """Token issuance / rotation shared by the JSON API and the HTMX UI."""
 
+from datetime import timedelta
+
 import jwt
 from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession
 
@@ -13,9 +15,16 @@ from app.crud import token as token_crud
 from app.models.user import User
 
 
-async def issue_token_pair(db: AsyncSession, user: User) -> tuple[str, str]:
+async def issue_token_pair(
-    """Create an access + refresh token and persist the refresh token for revocation."""
+    db: AsyncSession, user: User, access_expires_delta: timedelta | None = None
-    access = create_access_token(user.id)
+) -> tuple[str, str]:
+    """Create an access + refresh token and persist the refresh token for revocation.
+
+    ``access_expires_delta`` overrides the access token's default lifetime
+    (``settings.access_token_expire_minutes``) — used by the web login flow to
+    issue a longer-lived session cookie without affecting API bearer tokens.
+    """
+    access = create_access_token(user.id, access_expires_delta)
     refresh, payload = create_refresh_token(user.id)
     await token_crud.store(
         db,

app/web/pages.py

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from datetime import timedelta
+
 from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, Form, HTTPException, Query, Request, status
 from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse, RedirectResponse, Response
 from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@ def _set_auth_cookie(response: Response, access_token: str) -> None:
         httponly=True,
         secure=settings.cookie_secure,
         samesite="lax",
-        max_age=settings.access_token_expire_minutes * 60,
+        max_age=settings.session_timeout_hours * 3600,
         path="/",
     )
 
@@ -79,7 +81,9 @@ async def login_submit(
             },
             status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
         )
-    access, _ = await issue_token_pair(db, user)
+    access, _ = await issue_token_pair(
+        db, user, timedelta(hours=settings.session_timeout_hours)
+    )
     response = RedirectResponse(
         url=_safe_next(next_url), status_code=status.HTTP_303_SEE_OTHER
     )
@@ -110,7 +114,9 @@ async def login_ldap_submit(
             },
             status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
         )
-    access, _ = await issue_token_pair(db, user)
+    access, _ = await issue_token_pair(
+        db, user, timedelta(hours=settings.session_timeout_hours)
+    )
     response = RedirectResponse(
         url=_safe_next(next_url), status_code=status.HTTP_303_SEE_OTHER
     )