How do I get information about the current user with GraphQL?

Question

How do I get information about the current user with GraphQL?

Answer

Use the currentUser field on the root query. It returns the user bound to the current session.

{
  currentUser {
    username
    displayName
    email
    firstname
    lastname
    language
    locked
    organization
  }
}

On a default instance, authenticated as root:

{
  "data": {
    "currentUser": {
      "username": "root",
      "displayName": "root",
      "email": null,
      "firstname": null,
      "lastname": null,
      "language": "en",
      "locked": false,
      "organization": null
    }
  }
}

A property that is not set comes back as null rather than being omitted.

Fields that take arguments

{
  currentUser {
    property(name: "j:firstName")
    memberOf(group: "administrators")
    node { uuid path primaryNodeType { name } }
    site { displayName }
  }
}

• property(name: String) reads any user property that has no dedicated field.
• memberOf(group: String, site: String) returns a boolean. Omit site for a server-level group.
• node is the underlying jnt:user JCR node, for example /users/root. Use it when you need something the currentUser type does not expose directly.
• site is the site the user is defined in.

"My front end gets the guest user back from currentUser"

It does not. This is worth stating plainly because it is a common assumption and it sends people looking in the wrong place.

Jahia does have a guest user, and server-side rendering does distinguish it from a logged-in user - that is what renderContext.loggedIn is for in a JSP view. None of that applies to this GraphQL field. currentUser does not fall back to guest for an anonymous caller; it returns an error instead, as below. If you are reading advice about guest users and renderContext, you are reading about template rendering, not about this API.

For an anonymous front end calling GraphQL, "not logged in" is signalled by a GqlAccessDeniedException on currentUser, not by a user named guest.

It requires authentication

Calling currentUser without credentials does not return a guest user. It fails:

{
  "errors": [{
    "message": "Permission denied",
    "extensions": { "classification": "GqlAccessDeniedException" }
  }],
  "data": { "currentUser": null }
}

So a front end that may be anonymous has to handle that error rather than expect a guest user back. Check for authentication before issuing the query, or treat GqlAccessDeniedException on this field as "not logged in".

This article was drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed and curated by Jahia Customer Support engineers before publication.