🔐 Authentication

Authentication provides credential registration, JWT sessions, MFA, one-time-token flows, email verification, password recovery, and identity activation through authService.

Start here

For a normal application, mount the service instead of assembling route handlers yourself. The source requires an identities and refreshtokens collections; onetimetokens is needed by token, reset, verification, and MFA flows, while invitations, mail, and OAuth drivers are required only by the corresponding features.

import express from 'express';
import cookieParser from 'cookie-parser';
import {services} from '@nodeblocks/backend-sdk';

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
app.use(cookieParser()); // Required only when authMode is 'cookie'.
app.use(
  '/api',
  services.authService(
    {identities, refreshtokens, onetimetokens},
    {
      authSecrets: {
        authEncSecret: process.env.AUTH_ENC_SECRET!,
        authSignSecret: process.env.AUTH_SIGN_SECRET!,
      },
      authMode: 'bearer',
      accessTokenSignOptions: {expiresIn: '15m'},
      refreshTokenSignOptions: {expiresIn: '2d'},
      onetimeTokenSignOptions: {expiresIn: '5m'},
    },
    {mailService},
  ),
);

Configuration	Default from getMergedAuthConfig()	Effect
authMode	Omitted → Bearer mode	Cookie mode selects getCookieTokenInfo; otherwise the service selects getBearerTokenInfo.
accessTokenSignOptions.expiresIn	'15m'	Access-token lifetime.
refreshTokenSignOptions.expiresIn	'2d'	Refresh-token lifetime.
onetimeTokenSignOptions.expiresIn	'5m'	One-time-token lifetime.
maxFailedLoginAttempts	5	Credential-login failure threshold.
mfaCodeLength	6	Generated MFA-code length.
isMfaEnabled	false	Selects the MFA branch of credential login.
verifyEmailConfig.enabled	false	Controls verification-email behavior in the handler flow.

cookieOpts overrides cookie attributes but does not activate cookie authentication; use authMode: 'cookie'. Cookie mode still requires host-installed cookie-parser.

View service composition source

export const authService: AuthenticationService = (
  dataStores,
  configuration: Partial<AuthenticationServiceConfiguration> = {},
  { mailService, googleOAuthDriver, twitterOAuthDriver, lineOAuthDriver } = {}
) => {
  const mergedConfiguration = getMergedAuthConfig(configuration);
  return defService(
    partial(
      compose(
        registerCredentialsFeature, loginWithCredentialsFeature, logoutFeature,
        loginWithOnetimeTokenFeature, emailVerificationFeature, confirmEmailFeature,
        createInvitationFeature, findInvitationsFeature, getInvitationFeature,
        deleteInvitationFeature, changeEmailFeature, checkTokenFeature,
        confirmNewEmailFeature, sendResetPasswordLinkEmailFeature,
        completePasswordResetFeature, changePasswordFeature, deactivateFeature,
        activateFeature, googleOAuthFeature, googleOAuthCallbackFeature,
        refreshTokenFeature, deleteRefreshTokensFeature, resendMfaCodeFeature,
        verifyMfaCodeFeature, twitterOAuthFeature, twitterOAuthCallbackFeature,
        lineOAuthFeature, lineOAuthCallbackFeature
      ),
      [{
        authenticate: configuration.authMode === 'cookie'
          ? getCookieTokenInfo
          : getBearerTokenInfo,
        configuration: mergedConfiguration,
        dataStores, googleOAuthDriver, lineOAuthDriver, mailService, twitterOAuthDriver,
      }]
    )
  );
};

Common tasks

Task	Start with	Contract
Register and sign in	registerCredentialsFeature, loginWithCredentialsFeature	Features, routes
Use an access token	Bearer Authorization header	Validators, auth utility
Use cookies	authMode: 'cookie' and cookie-parser	Cookie utility
Add MFA or passwordless login	MFA and one-time-token features	Features, blocks
Build a custom service	Compose exported features	Composite service how-to

Bearer HTTP workflow

API_BASE_URL='http://localhost:8080/api'
IDENTITY_ID='replace-with-an-identity-id'
ACCESS_TOKEN='replace-with-an-access-token-returned-by-login'

curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/auth/register" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"ada@example.com","password":"correct-horse-battery-staple"}'

curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/auth/login" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"ada@example.com","password":"correct-horse-battery-staple"}'

curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/auth/token/check" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d "{\"token\":\"$ACCESS_TOKEN\"}"

# A protected route: administrators or the matching identity may revoke refresh tokens.
curl -X DELETE "$API_BASE_URL/auth/$IDENTITY_ID/refresh-tokens" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

The matching contracts are registerCredentialsSchema, loginWithCredentialsSchema, checkTokenSchema, and deleteRefreshTokensRoute. checkTokenRoute validates the body token and does not use an Authorization header; deleteRefreshTokensRoute does require an authenticated administrator or the matching identity.

Cookie HTTP workflow

Set authMode: 'cookie', register cookie-parser before authService, and let curl retain the cookies set by login:

curl -c cookies.txt -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/auth/login \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"ada@example.com","password":"correct-horse-battery-staple"}'

curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/auth/token/refresh \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{}'

curl -b cookies.txt -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/auth/logout \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{}'

Cookie-mode login returns {id} and sets session cookies. Cookie-mode refresh and logout use their empty-body schemas and return the route’s cookie-mode response; see refreshTokenCookieSchema and logoutCookieSchema.

Custom feature composition

import {partial} from 'ramda';
import {features, primitives, utils} from '@nodeblocks/backend-sdk';

const authenticationFeatureComposer = primitives.compose(
  features.registerCredentialsFeature,
  features.loginWithCredentialsFeature,
  features.logoutFeature,
);

const authenticationRouter = primitives.defService(partial(authenticationFeatureComposer, [{
  authenticate: utils.getBearerTokenInfo,
  configuration: {authSecrets},
  dataStores: {identities, refreshtokens, onetimetokens},
}]));

app.use('/api', authenticationRouter);

Compose this inside a service that supplies the same datastore, configuration, and authentication context as authService; the composite-service guide shows the complete host setup.

Reference map

Page	Purpose
Blocks	Reusable identity, token, email, MFA, and error contracts.
Features	Schema/route compositions.
Handlers	Route-pipeline operations and terminators.
Routes	Endpoint, status, access, and pipeline contracts.
Schemas	Input locations and validation contracts.
Validators	Authentication and authorization composition.

Related modules

Use mail-service drivers for email flows and OAuth drivers for provider flows. authService always composes the Invitation and OAuth features; provide their corresponding collections and drivers before invoking those routes. See error handling for application-level failures.