Overview
Credential Offers are the mechanism for initiating credential issuance in the Issuer2 Service. An offer is created from one or more credential profiles and generates an OID4VCI credential offer URL that any compliant wallet can claim.
What is a Credential Offer?
A credential offer is a one-time or limited-use invitation for a wallet to receive a credential. When you create an offer, you specify:
- Profile – The credential profile to use as the base configuration, or several profiles in one offer.
- Authentication Method – Pre-authorized or authorization code flow.
- Delivery Mode – Credential offer by reference or by value.
- Expiration – How long the offer remains valid.
- Runtime Overrides – Any profile values to override for this specific offer.
Offer Flow
- Create Offer – Call the offers endpoint against a profile, or against the issuer service with
credentials[]for several items. - Share URL – Send the credential offer URL to the user (QR code, deep link, etc.).
- Wallet Claims – The user's wallet resolves the offer and receives the credential.
Authentication Methods
| Method | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
PRE_AUTHORIZED | No user authentication required | Known users, pre-verified data |
AUTHORIZED | User must authenticate via IdP | Unknown users, dynamic data collection |
See Protocol Flows for the full sequence diagrams and guidance on when to use each.
Offer Delivery Modes
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
BY_REFERENCE | Offer URL contains a reference; wallet fetches full offer from issuer (default). |
BY_VALUE | Full credential offer is embedded in the URL. |
BY_REFERENCE is recommended for most use cases: it keeps URLs short and lets the issuer track when offers are resolved.
Issuer State Mode
For the authorization code flow, you can include an issuer_state parameter so the issuer can correlate the later authorization request with this offer's session:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
INCLUDE | Include issuer state for session correlation. |
OMIT | No issuer state. |
issuerStateMode applies only to AUTHORIZED offers; for PRE_AUTHORIZED offers it must be omitted. See Runtime Overrides for how issuer state interacts with per-offer overrides.
Next Steps
- Create an Offer – Step-by-step guide to creating credential offers.
- Notifications & Session Events – Monitor issuance progress in real time.