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 Python SDK.

Install Python SDK

 pip install workos

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.

App.js

JavaScript

 export default function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>AuthKit example</h1>
      <p>This is an example of how to use AuthKit with a React frontend.</p>
      <p>
        <a href="/login">Sign in</a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="/logout">Sign out</a>
      </p>
    </div>
  );
}

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 flask web server for Python. This guide won’t cover how to set up a Flask app, but you can find more information in the Flask documentation.

server.py

Python

 from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os
from flask import Flask, redirect
from workos import WorkOSClient

load_dotenv()

app = Flask(__name__)

workos = WorkOSClient(
    api_key=os.getenv("WORKOS_API_KEY"), client_id=os.getenv("WORKOS_CLIENT_ID")
)


@app.route("/login")
def login():
    authorization_url = workos.user_management.get_authorization_url(
        provider="authkit", redirect_uri=os.getenv("WORKOS_REDIRECT_URI")
    )

    return redirect(authorization_url)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True, port=3000)

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.py

Python

 from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

from flask import Flask, redirect, request, make_response, url_for

from workos import WorkOSClient

load_dotenv()

app = Flask(__name__)

workos = WorkOSClient(
    api_key=os.getenv("WORKOS_API_KEY"), client_id=os.getenv("WORKOS_CLIENT_ID")
)

cookie_password = os.getenv("WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD")


@app.route("/login")
def login():
    authorization_url = workos.user_management.get_authorization_url(
        provider="authkit", redirect_uri=os.getenv("WORKOS_REDIRECT_URI")
    )

    return redirect(authorization_url)


@app.route("/callback")
def callback():
    code = request.args.get("code")

    try:
        auth_response = workos.user_management.authenticate_with_code(
            code=code,
        )

        # Use the information in auth_response for further business logic.

        response = make_response(redirect("/"))

        return response

    except Exception as e:
        print("Error authenticating with code", e)
        return redirect(url_for("/login"))



if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True, port=3000)

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.py

Python

 from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os
from flask import Flask, redirect, request, make_response, url_for
from workos import WorkOSClient

load_dotenv()

app = Flask(__name__)

workos = WorkOSClient(
    api_key=os.getenv("WORKOS_API_KEY"), client_id=os.getenv("WORKOS_CLIENT_ID")
)

cookie_password = os.getenv("WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD")


@app.route("/login")
def login():
    authorization_url = workos.user_management.get_authorization_url(
        provider="authkit", redirect_uri=os.getenv("WORKOS_REDIRECT_URI")
    )

    return redirect(authorization_url)


@app.route("/callback")
def callback():
    code = request.args.get("code")

    try:
        auth_response = workos.user_management.authenticate_with_code(
            code=code,
            session={"seal_session": True, "cookie_password": cookie_password},
        )

        response = make_response(redirect("/"))
        # store the session in a cookie
        response.set_cookie(
            "wos_session",
            auth_response.sealed_session,
            secure=True,
            httponly=True,
            samesite="lax",
        )
        return response

    except Exception as e:
        print("Error authenticating with code", e)
        return redirect(url_for("/login"))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True, port=3000)

Protected routes

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

server.py

Python

 from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

from functools import wraps

from flask import Flask, redirect, request, make_response, url_for
from workos import WorkOSClient

load_dotenv()

app = Flask(__name__)

workos = WorkOSClient(
    api_key=os.getenv("WORKOS_API_KEY"), client_id=os.getenv("WORKOS_CLIENT_ID")
)

cookie_password = os.getenv("WORKOS_COOKIE_PASSWORD")

# Decorator to check if the user is authenticated. If not, redirect to login
def with_auth(f):
    @wraps(f)
    def decorated_function(*args, **kwargs):
        session = workos.user_management.load_sealed_session(
            sealed_session=request.cookies.get("wos_session"),
            cookie_password=cookie_password,
        )
        auth_response = session.authenticate()
        if auth_response.authenticated:
            return f(*args, **kwargs)

        if (
            auth_response.authenticated is False
            and auth_response.reason == "no_session_cookie_provided"
        ):
            return make_response(redirect("/login"))

        # If no session, attempt a refresh
        try:
            print("Refreshing session")
            result = session.refresh()
            if result.authenticated is False:
                return make_response(redirect("/login"))

            response = make_response(redirect(request.url))
            response.set_cookie(
                "wos_session",
                result.sealed_session,
                secure=True,
                httponly=True,
                samesite="lax",
            )
            return response
        except Exception as e:
            print("Error refreshing session", e)
            response = make_response(redirect("/login"))
            response.delete_cookie("wos_session")
            return response

    return decorated_function




@app.route("/login")
def login():
    authorization_url = workos.user_management.get_authorization_url(
        provider="authkit", redirect_uri=os.getenv("WORKOS_REDIRECT_URI")
    )

    return redirect(authorization_url)


@app.route("/callback")
def callback():
    code = request.args.get("code")

    try:
        auth_response = workos.user_management.authenticate_with_code(
            code=code,
            session={"seal_session": True, "cookie_password": cookie_password},
        )

        response = make_response(redirect("/"))

        # store the session in a cookie
        response.set_cookie(
            "wos_session",
            auth_response.sealed_session,
            secure=True,
            httponly=True,
            samesite="lax",
        )

        return response

    except Exception as e:
        print("Error authenticating with code", e)
        return redirect(url_for("/login"))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True, port=3000)

Use the decorator in the route that should only be accessible to logged in users.

server.py

Python

 @app.route("/dashboard")
@with_auth
def dashboard():
    session = workos.user_management.load_sealed_session(
        sealed_session=request.cookies.get("wos_session"),
        cookie_password=cookie_password,
    )

    response = session.authenticate()

    current_user = response.user if response.authenticated else None

    print(f"User {current_user['first_name']} is logged in")

    # Render a dashboard view

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.py

Python

 @app.route("/logout")
def logout():
    session = workos.user_management.load_sealed_session(
        sealed_session=request.cookies.get("wos_session"),
        cookie_password=cookie_password,
    )
    url = session.get_logout_url()

    # After log out has succeeded, the user will be redirected to your
    # app homepage which is configured in the WorkOS dashboard
    response = make_response(redirect(url))
    response.delete_cookie("wos_session")

    return response

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