55 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.9 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			55 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.9 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
	
	
---
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title: Overview
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---
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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.
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For example, a standard login flow would consist of the following stages:
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- Identification, user identifies themselves via a username or email address
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- Password, the user's password is checked against the hash in the database
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- Log the user in
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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.
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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.
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## Permissions
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Flows can have policies assigned to them. These policies determine if the current user is allowed to see and use this flow.
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Keep in mind that in certain circumstances, policies cannot match against users and groups as there is no authenticated user yet.
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## Designation
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Flows are designated for a single purpose. This designation changes when a flow is used. The following designations are available:
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### Authentication
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This is designates a flow to be used for authentication.
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The authentication flow should always contain a [**User Login**](stages/user_login.md) stage, which attaches the staged user to the current session.
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### Invalidation
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This designates a flow to be used to invalidate a session.
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This stage should always contain a [**User Logout**](stages/user_logout.md) stage, which resets the current session.
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### Enrollment
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This designates a flow for enrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**email**](stages/email/) or [**captcha**](stages/captcha/). At the end, to create the user, you can use the [**user_write**](stages/user_write.md) stage, which either updates the currently staged user, or if none exists, creates a new one.
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### Unenrollment
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This designates a flow for unenrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**email**](stages/email/) or [**captcha**](stages/captcha/). As a final stage, to delete the account, use the [**user_delete**](stages/user_delete.md) stage.
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### Recovery
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This designates a flow for recovery. This flow normally contains an [**identification**](stages/identification/) stage to find the user. It can also contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**email**](stages/email/) or [**captcha**](stages/captcha/).
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Afterwards, use the [**prompt**](stages/prompt/) stage to ask the user for a new password and the [**user_write**](stages/user_write.md) stage to update the password.
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### Stage configuration
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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.
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