Get started with Ash Authentication

Install the extension

mix igniter.install ash_authentication --auth-strategy magic_link,password

Using Phoenix?

Use the following. If you have not yet run the above command, this will prompt you to do so, so you can run both or only this one.

mix igniter.install ash_authentication_phoenix --auth-strategy magic_link,password

Add to your application's dependencies

Bring in the ash_authentication dependency:

# mix.exs

defp deps()
  [
    # ...
    {:ash_authentication, "~> 4.0"}
  ]
end

And add ash_authentication to your .formatter.exs:

# .formatter.exs
[
  import_deps: [..., :ash_authentication]
]

Create authentication domain and resources

Let's create an Accounts domain in our application which provides a User resource and a Token resource. This tutorial is assuming that you are using AshPostgres.

First, let's define our domain:

# lib/my_app/accounts.ex

defmodule MyApp.Accounts do
  use Ash.Domain

  resources do
    resource MyApp.Accounts.User
    resource MyApp.Accounts.Token
  end
end

Be sure to add it to the ash_domains config in your config.exs

# in config/config.exs
config :my_app, ash_domains: [..., MyApp.Accounts]

Next, let's define our Token resource. This resource is needed if token generation is enabled for any resources in your application. Most of the contents are auto-generated, so we just need to provide the data layer configuration and the API to use.

But before we do, we need to install a postgres extension.

# lib/my_app/repo.ex

defmodule MyApp.Repo do
  use AshPostgres.Repo, otp_app: :my_app

  def installed_extensions do
    ["ash-functions", "citext"]
  end
end

Setup Token Resource

# lib/my_app/accounts/token.ex
defmodule MyApp.Accounts.Token do
  use Ash.Resource,
    data_layer: AshPostgres.DataLayer,
    extensions: [AshAuthentication.TokenResource],
    # If using policies, enable the policy authorizer:
    authorizers: [Ash.Policy.Authorizer],
    domain: MyApp.Accounts

  postgres do
    table "tokens"
    repo MyApp.Repo
  end

  policies do
    bypass AshAuthentication.Checks.AshAuthenticationInteraction do
      authorize_if always()
    end
  end
end

Supervisor

AshAuthentication includes a supervisor which you should add to your application's supervisor tree. This is used to run any periodic jobs related to your authenticated resources (removing expired tokens, for example).

Example

defmodule MyApp.Application do
  use Application

  def start(_type, _args) do
    children = [
      # ...
      # add this line -->
      {AshAuthentication.Supervisor, otp_app: :my_app}
      # <-- add this line
    ]
    # ...
  end
end

Lastly let's define our User resource. Note that we aren't defining any authentication strategies here. This setup is used for all strategies. Once you have done this, you can follow one of the strategy specific guides at the bottom of this page.

# lib/my_app/accounts/user.ex

defmodule MyApp.Accounts.User do
  use Ash.Resource,
    data_layer: AshPostgres.DataLayer,
    extensions: [AshAuthentication],
    authorizers: [Ash.Policy.Authorizer],
    domain: MyApp.Accounts

  attributes do
    uuid_primary_key :id
  end

  authentication do
    tokens do
      enabled? true
      token_resource MyApp.Accounts.Token
      signing_secret fn _, _ ->
        # This is a secret key used to sign tokens. See the note below on secrets management
        Application.fetch_env(:my_app, :token_signing_secret)
      end
    end
  end

  postgres do
    table "users"
    repo MyApp.Repo
  end

  # You can customize this if you wish, but this is a safe default that
  # only allows user data to be interacted with via AshAuthentication.
  policies do
    bypass AshAuthentication.Checks.AshAuthenticationInteraction do
      authorize_if always()
    end

    policy always() do
      forbid_if always()
    end
  end
end