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How to add enterprise SSO to your CLI

Blog post from WorkOS

Post Details
Company
Date Published
Author
Maria Paktiti
Word Count
3,007
Language
English
Hacker News Points
-
Summary

A comprehensive tutorial outlines how to integrate Single Sign-On (SSO) into Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) using OAuth 2.0 flows—Device Code and Authorization Code with PKCE. These flows delegate authentication to a browser, circumventing the need for direct SAML or OIDC support within the CLI, thus enabling compatibility with various identity providers like Okta and Google Workspace. The tutorial demonstrates implementation in TypeScript against AuthKit, detailing the setup, configuration, and code necessary to achieve secure authorization while maintaining user-friendly experiences across different environments. The PKCE flow is recommended for phishing resistance and efficiency, while the Device Code flow is essential for headless environments. The integration ensures that the CLI can pass enterprise security reviews by handling authentication seamlessly, offering both flows to accommodate different usage scenarios, and suggesting best practices for token storage and management. It also highlights how AuthKit simplifies complex SSO processes, allowing the CLI to support multiple identity providers without additional code changes.