casdoor: what it is, what problem it solves & why it's gaining traction

What it solves

Casdoor provides a centralized, UI-first platform for Identity and Access Management (IAM). It eliminates the need to build custom authentication and authorization systems for every application by offering a single place to manage users, organizations, and access policies across multiple applications and providers.

How it works

Casdoor acts as a dedicated authentication server with a web-based management console. It supports a wide array of industry-standard protocols (such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, and LDAP) to handle user identities. For authorization, it integrates with Casbin to implement flexible policies like Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC). It also includes specialized gateways for AI-driven communication, specifically supporting the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocols.

Who it’s for

It is designed for developers and enterprise administrators who need a self-hosted identity provider that is easy to integrate into various applications using provided SDKs (Go, Java, Python, Node.js) and RESTful APIs.

Highlights

• AI-First Capabilities: Includes an MCP Gateway and support for the A2A protocol for agentic communication.
• Broad Protocol Support: Compatible with OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML 2.0, CAS, LDAP, and WebAuthn/Passkeys.
• Enterprise Ready: Features multi-tenancy, SCIM 2.0 for user provisioning, and comprehensive audit logs.
• Flexible Auth: Supports MFA, TOTP, and biometric authentication like Face ID.