You can use WordPress’s REST API to interact with forums/topics/replies the way you can with any WordPress posts, but that may not be ideal (and some of the verbiage does not directly translate very well.)
That API has only been fully available since WordPress 4.7, so we are seriously starting the process of exploring what a dedicated bbPress API should look like. Some work has gone into this already, but there is more to do.
Hi @fhasst1,
(Let me start by noting it could very well be that you already know this—but something in your post made me want to call it out just in case you weren’t aware.)
bbPress runs on top of WordPress. That’s important because it means if a user has logged into your (WordPress-driven) site/app then, by extension, they will have logged into the forum (insofar as bbPress will realize they are an authenticated user and will be able to identify them) … no need for a separate login.
Also, I think it’s worth calling out the fact that when it comes to adjusting the way bbPress behaves, or building some new forum feature, there is a really quite extensive set of functions, hooks and methods available to you that make it a really awesome platform to build on.
codex.bbpress.org