# Testing your authorizers
<a name="custom-auth-testing"></a>

 You can use the [TestInvokeAuthorizer](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/apireference/API_TestInvokeAuthorizer.html) API to test the invocation and return values of your authorizer. This API enables you to specify protocol metadata and test the signature validation in your authorizer.

The following tabs show how to use the AWS CLI to test your authorizer.

------
#### [ Unix-like ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER \
--token TOKEN_VALUE --token-signature TOKEN_SIGNATURE
```

------
#### [ Windows CMD ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER ^
--token TOKEN_VALUE --token-signature TOKEN_SIGNATURE
```

------
#### [ Windows PowerShell ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER `
--token TOKEN_VALUE --token-signature TOKEN_SIGNATURE
```

------

The value of the `token-signature` parameter is the signed token. To learn how to obtain this value, see [Signing the token](custom-auth.md#custom-auth-token-signature).

If your authorizer takes a user name and password, you can pass this information by using the `--mqtt-context` parameter. The following tabs show how to use the `TestInvokeAuthorizer` API to send a JSON object that contains a user name, password, and client name to your custom authorizer.

------
#### [ Unix-like ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER  \
--mqtt-context '{"username": "USER_NAME", "password": "dGVzdA==", "clientId":"CLIENT_NAME"}'
```

------
#### [ Windows CMD ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER  ^
--mqtt-context '{"username": "USER_NAME", "password": "dGVzdA==", "clientId":"CLIENT_NAME"}'
```

------
#### [ Windows PowerShell ]

```
aws iot test-invoke-authorizer --authorizer-name NAME_OF_AUTHORIZER  `
--mqtt-context '{"username": "USER_NAME", "password": "dGVzdA==", "clientId":"CLIENT_NAME"}'
```

------

The password must be base64-encoded. The following example shows how to encode a password in a Unix-like environment.

```
echo -n PASSWORD | base64
```