User Management

Easy to use authentication APIs designed to provide a flexible, secure, and fast integration.

Introduction

Integrating User Management features into your app is quick and easy. In this guide, we’ll walk you through adding a hosted authentication flow to your application using AuthKit.

In addition to this guide, there are a variety of example apps available to help with your integration.

Before getting started

To get the most out of this guide, you’ll need:

A WorkOS account

Your WorkOS API Key and Client ID

1. Configure your project

Let’s add the necessary dependencies and configuration in your WorkOS Dashboard.

Architecture

Server and clientClient-side only

Frontend

Next.js Remix Vanilla React

Backend

Node.js Ruby Python

Install dependencies

First, install the required Node SDK via npm.

Install Node SDK

 npm install @workos-inc/node

Configure a redirect URI

A redirect URI is a callback endpoint that WorkOS will redirect to after a user has authenticated. This endpoint will exchange the authorization code returned by WorkOS for an authenticated User object. We’ll create this endpoint in the next step.

You can set a redirect URI in the Redirects section of the WorkOS Dashboard. While wildcards in your URIs can be used in the staging environment, they and query parameters cannot be used in production.

When users sign out of their application, they will be redirected to your app’s homepage which is configured in the same dashboard area.

Set secrets

To make calls to WorkOS, provide the API key and the client ID. Store these values as managed secrets and pass them to the SDKs either as environment variables or directly in your app’s configuration depending on your preferences.

Environment variables

 WORKOS_API_KEY='sk_example_123456789'
WORKOS_CLIENT_ID='client_123456789'

The code examples use your staging API keys when signed in

2. Add AuthKit to your app

Let’s integrate the hosted authentication flow into your app.

Set up the frontend

To demonstrate AuthKit, we only need a simple page with links to logging in and out.

index.html

HTML

 <!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>AuthKit example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>AuthKit example</h1>
    <p>This is an example of how to use AuthKit with an HTML frontend.</p>
    <p>
      <a href="/login">Sign in</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a href="/logout">Sign out</a>
    </p>
  </body>
</html>

Clicking the “Sign in” and “Sign out” links should invoke actions on our server, which we’ll set up next.

Redirect users to AuthKit

We’ll need to direct users to sign in (or sign up) using AuthKit before redirecting them back to your application. We’ll do this by generating an AuthKit authorization URL server side and redirecting the user to it.

You can use the optional state parameter to encode arbitrary information to help restore application state between redirects.

For this guide we’ll be using the express web server for Node. This guide won’t cover how to set up an Express app, but you can find more information in the Express documentation.

server.js

JavaScript

 const express = require('express');
const { WorkOS } = require('@workos-inc/node');

const app = express();
const workos = new WorkOS(process.env.WORKOS_API_KEY, {
  clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
});

app.get('/login', (req, res) => {
  const authorizationUrl = workos.userManagement.getAuthorizationUrl({
    // Specify that we'd like AuthKit to handle the authentication flow
    provider: 'authkit',

    // The callback endpoint that WorkOS will redirect to after a user authenticates
    redirectUri: 'http://localhost:3000/callback',
    clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
  });

  // Redirect the user to the AuthKit sign-in page
  res.redirect(authorizationUrl);
});

WorkOS will redirect to your Redirect URI if there is an issue generating an authorization URL. Read our API Reference for more details.

Add a callback endpoint

Next, let’s add the callback endpoint (referenced in Configure a redirect URI) which will exchange the authorization code (valid for 10 minutes) for an authenticated User object.

server.js

JavaScript

 const express = require('express');
const { WorkOS } = require('@workos-inc/node');

const app = express();

const workos = new WorkOS(process.env.WORKOS_API_KEY, {
  clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
});

app.get('/callback', async (req, res) => {
  // The authorization code returned by AuthKit
  const code = req.query.code;

  if (!code) {
    return res.status(400).send('No code provided');
  }

  const { user } = await workos.userManagement.authenticateWithCode({
    code,
    clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
  });

  // Use the information in `user` for further business logic.

  // Redirect the user to the homepage
  return res.redirect('/');
});

3. Handle the user session

Session management helper methods are included in our SDKs to make integration easy. For security reasons, sessions are automatically “sealed”, meaning they are encrypted with a strong password.

Create a session password

The SDK requires you to set a strong password to encrypt cookies. This password must be 32 characters long. You can generate a secure password by using the 1Password generator or the openssl library via the command line:

Generate a strong password

 openssl rand -base64 24

Then add it to the environment variables file.

.env

 WORKOS_API_KEY='sk_example_123456789'
WORKOS_CLIENT_ID='client_123456789'

WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD='<your password>'

Save the encrypted session

Next, use the SDK to authenticate the user and return a password protected session. The refresh token is considered sensitive as it can be used to re-authenticate, hence why the session is encrypted before storing it in a session cookie.

server.js

JavaScript

 import cookieParser from 'cookie-parser';

app.use(cookieParser());

app.get('/callback', async (req, res) => {
  // The authorization code returned by AuthKit
  const code = req.query.code;

  if (!code) {
    return res.status(400).send('No code provided');
  }

  try {
    const authenticateResponse =
      await workos.userManagement.authenticateWithCode({
        clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
        code,
        session: {
          sealSession: true,
          cookiePassword: process.env.WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD,
        },
      });

    const { user, sealedSession } = authenticateResponse;

    // Store the session in a cookie
    res.cookie('wos-session', sealedSession, {
      path: '/',
      httpOnly: true,
      secure: true,
      sameSite: 'lax',
    });

    // Use the information in `user` for further business logic.

    // Redirect the user to the homepage
    return res.redirect('/');
  } catch (error) {
    return res.redirect('/login');
  }
});

Protected routes

Then, use middleware to specify which routes should be protected. If the session has expired, use the SDK to attempt to generate a new one.

server.js

JavaScript

 import { WorkOS } from '@workos-inc/node';

const workos = new WorkOS(process.env.WORKOS_API_KEY, {
  clientId: process.env.WORKOS_CLIENT_ID,
});

// Auth middleware function
async function withAuth(req, res, next) {
  const session = workos.userManagement.loadSealedSession({
    sessionData: req.cookies['wos-session'],
    cookiePassword: process.env.WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD,
  });

  const { authenticated, reason } = await session.authenticate();

  if (authenticated) {
    return next();
  }

  // If the cookie is missing, redirect to login
  if (!authenticated && reason === 'no_session_cookie_provided') {
    return res.redirect('/login');
  }

  // If the session is invalid, attempt to refresh
  try {
    const { authenticated, sealedSession } = await session.refresh();

    if (!authenticated) {
      return res.redirect('/login');
    }

    // update the cookie
    res.cookie('wos-session', sealedSession, {
      path: '/',
      httpOnly: true,
      secure: true,
      sameSite: 'lax',
    });

    // Redirect to the same route to ensure the updated cookie is used
    return res.redirect(req.originalUrl);
  } catch (e) {
    // Failed to refresh access token, redirect user to login page
    // after deleting the cookie
    res.clearCookie('wos-session');
    res.redirect('/login');
  }
}

Add the middleware to the route that should only be accessible to logged in users.

server.js

JavaScript

 // Specify the `withAuth` middleware function we defined earlier to protect this route
app.get('/dashboard', withAuth, async (req, res) => {
  const session = workos.userManagement.loadSealedSession({
    sessionData: req.cookies['wos-session'],
    cookiePassword: process.env.WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD,
  });

  const { user } = await session.authenticate();

  console.log(`User ${user.firstName} is logged in`);

  // ... render dashboard page
});

Ending the session

Finally, ensure the user can end their session by redirecting them to the logout URL. After successfully signing out, the user will be redirected to your app’s homepage, which is configured in the WorkOS dashboard.

server.js

JavaScript

 app.get('/logout', async (req, res) => {
  const session = workos.userManagement.loadSealedSession({
    sessionData: req.cookies['wos-session'],
    cookiePassword: process.env.WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD,
  });

  const url = await session.getLogoutUrl();

  res.clearCookie('wos-session');
  res.redirect(url);
});

If you haven’t configured your app’s homepage in the WorkOS dashboard, users will see an error when logging out.

Validate the authentication flow

Navigate to the authentication endpoint we created and sign up for an account. You can then sign in with the newly created credentials and see the user listed in the Users section of the WorkOS Dashboard.

Example appsView sample User Management apps

Up next