🛒 Kroger Public API 🛍️ -- with Examples in Python 🐍

July 9, 2026 · View on GitHub

A comprehensive Python client library for the Kroger Public API, featuring robust token management, comprehensive examples, and easy-to-use interfaces for all available endpoints.

📺 Demo

Adding an item to your cart via an interactive Python script, and checking that it appears in your account:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0079cbc7-5af0-473b-909a-d43508fe43d5

You can also check out kroger-mcp, which is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol leveraging this kroger-api package!

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install kroger-api

From Source

git clone https://github.com/CupOfOwls/kroger-api.git
cd kroger-api
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .

Basic Usage

from kroger_api import KrogerAPI
from kroger_api.utils.env import load_and_validate_env, get_zip_code

# Env -- set in .env
load_and_validate_env(["KROGER_CLIENT_ID", "KROGER_CLIENT_SECRET"])
zip_code = get_zip_code(default="10001")

# Initialize the client
kroger = KrogerAPI()

# Get a client credentials token for public data
token_info = kroger.authorization.get_token_with_client_credentials("product.compact")

locations = kroger.location.search_locations(
                zip_code=zip_code,
                radius_in_miles=10,
                limit=1
            )

# Search for products
products = kroger.product.search_products(
        term="milk",
        location_id=locations["data"][0]["locationId"],
        limit=5
    )

print(f"Found {len(products['data'])} products!")

🔐 Getting Started with Credentials

1. Create a Kroger Developer Account

Visit the Kroger Developer Portal to:

Create a developer account
Register your application
Get your CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET, and set your REDIRECT_URI

2. Set Up Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your credentials:

# Kroger API Credentials
KROGER_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id_here
KROGER_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret_here
KROGER_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost:8000/callback

# Optional (Recommended): Your zip code for location-based searches
KROGER_USER_ZIP_CODE=90210

Important: Set your KROGER_REDIRECT_URI during app registration. While marked as optional in the form, the OAuth flow requires it.

The first time you run a script requiring user authentication, you'll be prompted to authorize your app through your web browser. You're granting permission to your own registered app, not to any third party.

🔄 Token Management

This library implements robust, automatic token management:

✨ Features

Automatic token refresh - No manual token handling required
Persistent storage - Tokens saved securely to avoid repeated logins
Proactive validation - Tests tokens before use
Reactive recovery - Automatically refreshes expired tokens during API calls
PKCE Support - Enhanced OAuth security with Proof Key for Code Exchange

🔧 How it Works

Proactive Approach:

Loads saved tokens and tests them with a lightweight API request
Automatically refreshes if token is expired and refresh token is available

Reactive Approach:

Makes API requests with current token
On 401 Unauthorized errors, attempts token refresh
Retries original request with new token

Token files (automatically managed):

.kroger_token_client_product.compact.json - Client credentials tokens
.kroger_token_user.json - User authorization tokens These tokens are stored in the first matching location:

$KROGER_TOKEN_DIR — set this environment variable to choose the directory yourself
$XDG_DATA_HOME/kroger-mcp/ (defaults to ~/.local/share/kroger-mcp/) on Unix-like machines (macOS, Linux)
%APPDATA%\kroger-mcp\ on Windows

The directory is shared with the kroger-mcp package so both reuse the same tokens, and it is always writable even when the process is launched with a read-only working directory (e.g. MCP servers under Claude Desktop on Windows).

🔒 Enhanced Security with PKCE

This library supports PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) for enhanced security in the OAuth flow:

from kroger_api import KrogerAPI
from kroger_api.utils import generate_pkce_parameters

# Generate PKCE parameters
pkce_params = generate_pkce_parameters()

# Initialize the client
kroger = KrogerAPI()

# Get authorization URL with PKCE
auth_url = kroger.authorization.get_authorization_url(
    scope="cart.basic:write profile.compact",
    state="random_state_value",
    code_challenge=pkce_params['code_challenge'],
    code_challenge_method=pkce_params['code_challenge_method']
)

# After user authorization and redirect, exchange code for token with verifier
token_info = kroger.authorization.get_token_with_authorization_code(
    code="authorization_code_from_redirect",
    code_verifier=pkce_params['code_verifier']
)

PKCE helps protect against authorization code interception attacks, particularly important for public clients or those using external tools to manage OAuth flows.

📚 Example Scripts

The examples/ directory contains comprehensive demonstrations:

Script	Description	Authentication Required
`location_api_examples.py`	Search stores, get details about locations, chains, and departments	Client credentials
`product_api_examples.py`	Search products, get details, filter by various criteria	Client credentials
`cart_api_examples.py`	Add items to user's cart, full shopping workflow	User authorization
`identity_api_examples.py`	Get user profile information	User authorization
`oauth_flow.py`	Complete OAuth2 authorization code flow example	User authorization
`token_refresh_example.py`	Demonstrates automatic token refresh functionality	Both
`authorization_api_examples.py`	All authorization endpoints and flows	Both
`clear_tokens.py`	Utility to delete all saved token files	None

🏃‍♂️ Running Examples

# Make sure your .env file is configured first!

# Public API examples (no user login required)
python examples/location_api_examples.py
python examples/product_api_examples.py

# User-specific examples (requires browser login)
python examples/cart_api_examples.py
python examples/identity_api_examples.py
python examples/oauth_flow.py

# Utility scripts
python examples/clear_tokens.py  # Clear saved tokens

Here's a quick demo of browsing via the Product API with examples/product_api_examples.py:

🏪 Kroger Public API Information

API Versions & Rate Limits

API	Version	Rate Limit	Notes
Authorization	1.0.13	No specific limit	Token management
Products	1.2.4	10,000 calls/day	Search and product details
Locations	1.2.2	1,600 calls/day per endpoint	Store locations and details
Cart	1.2.3	5,000 calls/day	Add/manage cart items
Identity	1.2.3	5,000 calls/day	User profile information

Note: Rate limits are enforced per endpoint, not per operation. You can distribute calls across operations using the same endpoint as needed.

🔑 Available Scopes

When requesting user authorization, you can specify these scopes:

product.compact - Read product information
cart.basic:write - Add items to cart
profile.compact - Read user profile information