71 lines
		
	
	
		
			3.8 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			71 lines
		
	
	
		
			3.8 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 **Evaluate when stage is run** 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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### Denied action
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Configure what happens when access to a flow is denied by a policy. By default, authentik will redirect to a `?next` parameter if set, and otherwise show an error message.
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-   `MESSAGE_CONTINUE`: Show a message if no `?next` parameter is set, otherwise redirect.
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-   `MESSAGE`: Always show error message.
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-   `CONTINUE`: Always redirect, either to `?next` if set, otherwise to the default interface.
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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/index.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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## Import & Export
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Flows can be imported and exported to share with other people, the community and for troubleshooting. Flows can be imported to apply new functionality and apply existing workflows.
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Download our [Example flows](./examples/flows.md) and then import them into your authentik instance.
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Starting with authentik 2022.8, flows will be exported as YAML, but JSON-based flows can still be imported.
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