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Authentication

Weaviate controls access through user authentication via API keys or OpenID Connect (OIDC), with an option for anonymous access. Users can then be assigned different authorization levels, as shown in the diagram below.

For example, a user logging in with the API key jane-secret may be granted administrator permissions, while another user logging in with the API key ian-secret may be granted read-only permissions.

In summary, Weaviate allows the following authentication methods:

  • API key
  • OpenID Connect (OIDC)
  • Anonymous access (no authentication, strongly discouraged except for development or evaluation)

Note that API key and OIDC authentication can be both enabled at the same time.

The way to configure authentication differs by your deployment method, depending on whether you are running Weaviate in Docker or Kubernetes. Below, we provide examples for both.

API key authentication is a simple and effective way to authenticate users. Each user is assigned a unique API key, which is used to authenticate the user.

When creating database users programmatically, each user is assigned a distinct API key at creation time. These API keys can also be regenerated (rotated).

API key authentication can be configured using environment variables. In Docker Compose, set them in the configuration file (docker-compose.yml) such as in the following example:

YAML
services:
  weaviate:
    ...
    environment:
      ...
      # Disable anonymous access.
      AUTHENTICATION_ANONYMOUS_ACCESS_ENABLED: 'false'

      # Enables API key authentication.
      AUTHENTICATION_APIKEY_ENABLED: 'true'

      # List one or more keys in plaintext separated by commas. Each key corresponds to a specific user identity below.
      AUTHENTICATION_APIKEY_ALLOWED_KEYS: 'user-a-key,user-b-key'

      # List one or more user identities, separated by commas. Each identity corresponds to a specific key above.
      AUTHENTICATION_APIKEY_USERS: 'user-a,user-b'

This configuration:

  • Disables anonymous access
  • Enables API key authentication
  • Defines plaintext API keys in AUTHENTICATION_APIKEY_ALLOWED_KEYS
  • Associates users with the API keys in AUTHENTICATION_APIKEY_USERS

These users can now be assigned permissions based on the authorization settings.

For Kubernetes deployments using Helm, API key authentication can be configured in the values.yaml file under the authentication section. Here's an example configuration:

YAML
authentication:
  anonymous_access:
    # Disable anonymous access.
    enabled: false

  apikey:
    # Enables API key authentication.
    enabled: true

    # List one or more keys in plaintext separated by commas. Each key corresponds to a specific user identity below.
    allowed_keys:
      - user-a-key
      - user-b-key

    # List one or more user identities, separated by commas. Each identity corresponds to a specific key above.
    users:
      - user-a
      - user-b

This configuration:

  • Disables anonymous access
  • Enables API key authentication
  • Defines plaintext API keys in allowed_keys
  • Associates users with the API keys in users

For enhanced security in production environments, you can store API keys in Kubernetes secrets and reference them using environment variables instead of storing them as plaintext in the Helm values.

OIDC authentication requires the resource (Weaviate) to validate tokens issued by an identity provider. The identity provider authenticates the user and issues tokens, which are then validated by Weaviate.

Any "OpenID Connect" compatible token issuer that implements OpenID Connect Discovery is compatible with Weaviate.

This document discusses how to configure Weaviate as the resource. For details on OIDC flows, token handling, and configuring a token issuer, see the OIDC configuration guide.

More about OIDC

With OpenID Connect (based on OAuth2), an external identity provider and token issuer ('token issuer' hereafter) is responsible for managing users.

OIDC authentication requires obtaining a valid token from the token issuer so that it can be sent in the header of any request to Weaviate. This applies to both REST and GraphQL requests.

When Weaviate receives a token (JSON Web Token or JWT), it verifies that it was indeed signed by the configured token issuer. If the signature is correct, all contents of the token are trusted, which authenticates the user based on the information in the token.

To configure Weaviate for OIDC-based authentication, add the following environment variables to your configuration file.

An example docker-compose.yml file looks like this:

YAML
services:
  weaviate:
    ...
    environment:
      ...
      # enabled (optional - defaults to false) turns OIDC auth on. All other fields in
      # this section will only be validated if enabled is set to true.
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_ENABLED: 'true'

      # issuer (required) tells weaviate how to discover the token issuer. This
      # endpoint must implement the OpenID Connect Discovery spec, so that weaviate
      # can retrieve the issuer's public key.
      #
      # The example URL below uses the path structure commonly found with keycloak
      # where an example realm 'my-weaviate-usecase' was created. The exact
      # path structure depends on the token issuer. See the token issuer's documentation
      # about which endpoint implements OIDC Discovery.
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_ISSUER: 'http://my-token-issuer/auth/realms/my-weaviate-usecase'

      # client_id (required unless skip_client_id_check is set to true) tells
      # Weaviate to check for a particular OAuth 2.0 client_id in the audience claim.
      # This is to prevent that a token which was signed by the correct issuer
      # but never intended to be used with Weaviate can be used for authentication.
      #
      # For more information on what clients are in OAuth 2.0, see
      # https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-1.1
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_CLIENT_ID: 'my-weaviate-client'

      # username_claim (required) tells Weaviate which claim in the token to use for extracting
      # the username. The username will be passed to the authorization plugin.
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_USERNAME_CLAIM: 'email'

      # skip_client_id_check (optional, defaults to false) skips the client_id
      # validation in the audience claim as outlined in the section above.
      # Not recommended to set this option as it reduces security, only set this
      # if your token issuer is unable to provide a correct audience claim
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_SKIP_CLIENT_ID_CHECK: 'false'

      # scope (optional) these will be used by clients as default scopes for authentication
      AUTHENTICATION_OIDC_SCOPES: ''

For Kubernetes deployments using Helm, OIDC authentication can be configured in the values.yaml file under the authentication section. Here's an example configuration:

YAML
authentication:
  anonymous_access:
    # Disable anonymous access.
    enabled: false
  oidc:
    # enabled (optional - defaults to false) turns OIDC auth on. All other fields in
    # this section will only be validated if enabled is set to true.
    enabled: true

    # issuer (required) tells weaviate how to discover the token issuer. This
    # endpoint must implement the OpenID Connect Discovery spec, so that weaviate
    # can retrieve the issuer's public key.
    #
    # The example URL below uses the path structure commonly found with keycloak
    # where an example realm 'my-weaviate-usecase' was created. The exact
    # path structure depends on the token issuer. See the token issuer's documentation
    # about which endpoint implements OIDC Discovery.
    issuer: "http://my-token-issuer/auth/realms/my-weaviate-usecase"

    # client_id (required unless skip_client_id_check is set to true) tells
    # Weaviate to check for a particular OAuth 2.0 client_id in the audience claim.
    # This is to prevent that a token which was signed by the correct issuer
    # but never intended to be used with Weaviate can be used for authentication.
    #
    # For more information on what clients are in OAuth 2.0, see
    # https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749#section-1.1
    client_id: "my-weaviate-client"

    # username_claim (required) tells Weaviate which claim in the token to use for extracting
    # the username. The username will be passed to the authorization plugin.
    username_claim: "email"

    # skip_client_id_check (optional, defaults to false) skips the client_id
    # validation in the audience claim as outlined in the section above.
    # Not recommended to set this option as it reduces security, only set this
    # if your token issuer is unable to provide a correct audience claim
    skip_client_id_check: "false"

    # scope (optional) these will be used by clients as default scopes for authentication
    scopes: ""

    # groups_claim: ''

Weaviate can be configured to accept anonymous requests. This is strongly discouraged except for development or evaluation purposes.

Users that send requests without explicit authentication are authenticated as user: anonymous.

You can use the authorization plugin to specify which permissions to apply to this anonymous user. If anonymous access is disabled altogether, any request without an allowed authentication scheme returns 401 Unauthorized.

To enable anonymous access in Docker Compose, add the following environment variable to your configuration file:

YAML
services:
  weaviate:
    ...
    environment:
      ...
      AUTHENTICATION_ANONYMOUS_ACCESS_ENABLED: 'true'

To enable anonymous access in Kubernetes, add the following configuration to your values.yaml file:

YAML
authentication:
  anonymous_access:
    enabled: true

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