# Authentication

After your application is successfully [connected](/cortex-api/connecting-to-the-cortex-api.md) to the Cortex service, you must go through the authentication procedure.

First, you should call [getUserLogin](/cortex-api/authentication/getuserlogin.md) to check if the user has already logged in though [EMOTIV Launcher](https://emotiv.gitbook.io/emotiv-launcher/). Then, you must call [requestAccess](/cortex-api/authentication/requestaccess.md) to ask the user to approve your application.

Finally, call [authorize](/cortex-api/authentication/authorize.md) to generate a Cortex token or you can reuse a token that you previously got from this method, if it is not expired.


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