# Retrieving user\_id for API use

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/retrieving-user-id-for-api-use/88522
**Category:** SSO
**Created:** [May 26, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/retrieving-user-id-for-api-use/88522 "2018-05-26T19:59:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Judith](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/judith/32/289903_2.png) [@Judith](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Judith)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/retrieving-user-id-for-api-use/88522/1 "2018-05-26T19:59:04Z")

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I am using SSO as the only way to sign in, therefore I know my forum users’ external\_id, but for the sake of using the API I need to know their forum user ID (right?). The API doesn’t seem to have a feature to search for user ids based on their external ID. How have people managed this?

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### Author: ![riking](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/riking/32/170938_2.png) [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/retrieving-user-id-for-api-use/88522/2 "2018-05-26T21:41:47Z")

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There’s a `/users/by-external/id` route, I believe. Possibly with /admin/ in front.