Company
Date Published
Author
Robin Guldener
Word count
2223
Language
English
Hacker News points
642

Summary

The current state of OAuth implementation is that many APIs have their own interpretation of the standard, leading to subtle differences and non-standard extensions. This results in a complex and error-prone experience for developers trying to implement OAuth flows. Even with standardized error messages, debugging OAuth flows can be challenging due to missing documentation, outdated information, and API-specific quirks. Furthermore, some APIs require cumbersome approvals before allowing public access, while security best practices are constantly evolving, making it a moving target for developers. To address these issues, the authors propose an open-source solution called Nango, which provides prebuilt OAuth flows, secure token storage, and automatic token refreshes for over 250 OAuth APIs.