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Overview

Flows are a method of describing a sequence of stages. A stage represents a single verification or logic step. They are used to authenticate users, enroll them, and more.

For example, a standard login flow would consist of the following stages:

  • Identification, user identifies themselves via a username or email address
  • Password, the user's password is checked against the hash in the database
  • Log the user in

Upon flow execution, a plan containing all stages is generated. This means that all attached policies are evaluated upon execution. This behaviour can be altered by enabling the Re-evaluate Policies option on the binding.

To determine which flow is linked, authentik searches all flows with the required designation and chooses the first instance the current user has access to.

Permissions​

Flows can have policies assigned to them. These policies determine if the current user is allowed to see and use this flow.

Keep in mind that in certain circumstances, policies cannot match against users and groups as there is no authenticated user yet.

Designation​

Flows are designated for a single purpose. This designation changes when a flow is used. The following designations are available:

Authentication​

This is designates a flow to be used for authentication.

The authentication flow should always contain a User Login stage, which attaches the staged user to the current session.

Invalidation​

This designates a flow to be used to invalidate a session.

This stage should always contain a User Logout stage, which resets the current session.

Enrollment​

This designates a flow for enrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as email or captcha. At the end, to create the user, you can use the user_write stage, which either updates the currently staged user, or if none exists, creates a new one.

Unenrollment​

This designates a flow for unenrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as email or captcha. As a final stage, to delete the account, use the user_delete stage.

Recovery​

This designates a flow for recovery. This flow normally contains an identification stage to find the user. It can also contain any amount of verification stages, such as email or captcha. Afterwards, use the prompt stage to ask the user for a new password and the user_write stage to update the password.

Stage configuration​

This designates a flow for general setup. This designation doesn't have any constraints in what you can do. For example, by default this designation is used to configure Factors, like change a password and setup TOTP.