Explain it to me like I'm new
OAuth is how you let an app act for you without giving it your password. You approve specific permissions, and the app gets a limited token instead.
Think of it like
A hotel key card. It opens your room for three nights — it is not the master key, and it expires.
What actually happens
You are sent to the service to log in. You approve a list of permissions. The service hands your app a token. The app sends that token with each request.
user → approves scopes → service → token → app → API calls
Where I encountered it
Build #017 — my agent was refused until it stopped trying to be me.
Next words to meet
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