# Which Problems Are Solved
ZITADEL cannot currently be used as an OAuth 2.0 Authorization Server by
clients that need to register themselves at runtime:
- There is no [OAuth 2.0 Dynamic Client Registration (RFC
7591)](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7591) endpoint, and no
`registration_endpoint` is advertised in the discovery document.
- This blocks [Model Context Protocol
(MCP)](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) clients (Claude Desktop,
claude.ai, Cursor, the MCP SDKs), whose OAuth 2.1 authorization profile
expects an Authorization Server that supports dynamic client
registration. They self-register before any user context exists and only
then start the authorization code + PKCE flow.
# How the Problems Are Solved
## Control plane: instance security settings
No feature flag and no runtime config. A
`DynamicClientRegistrationSettings` message is nested under the instance
`SecuritySettings` in `settings/v2`, next to `embedded_iframe` and
`enable_impersonation`:
| `enabled` | `allow_unauthenticated` | Behaviour |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `false` (default) | — | `POST /oauth/v2/register` returns `404`,
`registration_endpoint` absent from discovery |
| `true` | `false` (default) | Token-gated registration, client homed in
the token's organization |
| `true` | `true` | Open registration for MCP hosts, client homed in the
instance default organization |
Both values are carried on `authz.Instance` and loaded with the
instance, exactly like `EnableImpersonation`, so the discovery document
and the endpoint read them per request without an extra query.
`allow_unauthenticated` implies `enabled` in both implementations, so a
single setting closes the endpoint.
Adding the two columns bumps the projection table to
`projections.security_policies3`, following what the impersonation
setting did for `security_policies2`.
## Authorization: a dedicated permission, not `project.app.write`
- New org-scoped permission **`project.app.register_dynamic`**, granted
by default to `ORG_OWNER`, `IAM_OWNER` and `IAM_ORG_MANAGER` — in both
`InternalAuthZ` and `SystemAuthZ`, mirroring where `project.app.write`
already lives.
- New built-in role **`ORG_DYNAMIC_CLIENT_REGISTRAR`** carrying only
that permission, so a service user can self-register clients without
gaining write access to the organization's existing applications.
- Open mode (`allow_unauthenticated = true`) requires no token and no
permission: that is the MCP self-register path.
- A valid token whose user lacks the permission is answered with **`403
insufficient_scope`** (RFC 6750 §3.1) rather than `401 invalid_token`,
so a caller can tell "your token is bad" from "your token may not do
this". `verifyAccessToken` also reports invalid tokens as permission
denied, so the authorization failure is marked explicitly to keep the
two apart.
The check runs once, at the endpoint, right after the token is verified
and before any state is created, so it also gates the auto-provisioning
of the organization's DCR project. The permission itself lives in the
command layer next to the others
(`Commands.CheckPermissionRegisterDynamicClient`). As the OIDC endpoints
are not behind the authorization interceptor, the caller identity is
derived from the verified token, the way token exchange does for the
impersonating actor.
## Registration itself
- **Registered clients are ordinary OIDC applications.** The endpoint
reuses the existing application-creation events
(`NewApplicationAddedEvent` and `NewOIDCConfigAddedEvent`), so the whole
token, authorization and introspection flow keeps working unchanged.
They are stored in a dedicated, auto-provisioned project named `ZITADEL
DCR` per organization (name lookup), so they do not pollute the
`IAMProject` or other projects.
- Input is validated with the existing `GetOIDCV1Compliance` rules;
`private_key_jwt` and `jwks`/`jwks_uri` are rejected with
`invalid_client_metadata`.
- **Endpoint wiring without forking the library.** `NewServer` calls
`op.RegisterServer` instead of `op.RegisterLegacyServer`, so the new
route can be added through the same `op.WithSetRouter` hook as the
authorize callback. `op.RegisterLegacyServer` appends a middleware after
the caller options, which chi forbids once a route has been registered;
`op.NewIssuerInterceptor` reproduces the issuer middleware it would
otherwise add. The `/oauth/v2` routing prefix is unchanged.
# Additional Changes
- **`application_type` inference for custom-scheme redirects** (last
commit, isolated). `application_type` is an OpenID Connect member; RFC
7591 does not define it, so clients that only implement RFC 7591 omit
it. Native MCP hosts doing so register custom-scheme redirect URIs,
which ZITADEL reserves for native applications, and the OIDC default of
`web` rejected them with `invalid_redirect_uri`. Inference is limited to
custom schemes and to an absent `application_type`, so every request
accepted today keeps its current application type and auth method — an
`http` loopback redirect still yields a web application. Happy to drop
this commit if you would rather keep it out of this PR.
- **Docs**: a Dynamic Client Registration integration guide, a
`registration_endpoint` section on the OpenID Connect endpoints page,
and the new role in the administrators table (plus its description in
the Console translations).
# Additional Context
- Part of #9810. This is **Phase 1 (DCR)**; #12315 adds RFC 7592 and
#12316 adds CIMD, both stacked on this branch and rebased once this
lands.
- Implements the control-plane and authorization model requested in the
review of this PR, itself a refinement of the direction in
https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/issues/9810#issuecomment-4891176997.
- **Out of scope (deliberately)**: RFC 7592, CIMD, persisting free-form
metadata (`logo_uri`, `contacts`, and similar), and `private_key_jwt` /
`jwks_uri` (rejected cleanly). No new event types.
- Follow-ups explicitly left out, per the review: DCR client lifecycle
and richer audit, consent and custom scopes, JWT / `aud` (RFC 8707), and
RFC 8414 AS metadata (currently absent from both ZITADEL and
`zitadel/oidc`).
# Which Problems Are Solved
In many cases IAM was used where instance was meant.
# How the Problems Are Solved
- Rename wrong usage of IAM to instance all over the code base.
- Add an agents.md which explains the terms used in Zitadel's
architecture.
# Additional Context
- closes#11280
---------
Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: muhlemmer <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Marco A. <[email protected]>
# Which Problems Are Solved
Flakiness and conflicts in value from gofakeit.
# How the Problems Are Solved
Move Gofakeit calls to the integration package, to guarantee proper
usage and values for integration testing.
# Additional Changes
None
# Additional Context
None
# Which Problems Are Solved
Added search by phone to user Service V2.
```
curl --request POST \
--url https://<zitadel_domain>/v2/users \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <Token>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \
--data '{
"query": {
"offset": "0",
"limit": 100,
"asc": true
},
"sortingColumn": "USER_FIELD_NAME_UNSPECIFIED",
"queries": [
{
"phoneQuery": {
"number": "+12011223313",
"method": "TEXT_QUERY_METHOD_EQUALS"
}
}
]
}'
```
Why?
Searching for a user by phone was missing from User Service V2 and V2
beta.
# How the Problems Are Solved
* Added to the SearchQuery proto
* Added code to filter users by phone
# Additional Changes
N/A
# Additional Context
Search by phone is present in V3 User Service
---------
Co-authored-by: Stefan Benz <[email protected]>
Improve integration tests:
- spliting the tests in TokenExchange to isolated instances and in
parallel
- corrected some test structure so that the check for Details is no done
anymore if the test already failed
- replace required-calls with assert-calls to not stop the testing
- add gofakeit for application, project and usernames(emails)
- add eventually checks for testing in actions v2, so the request only
get called when the execution is defined
- check for length of results in list/search endpoints to avoid index
errors
# Which Problems Are Solved
Use a single server instance for API integration tests. This optimizes
the time taken for the integration test pipeline,
because it allows running tests on multiple packages in parallel. Also,
it saves time by not start and stopping a zitadel server for every
package.
# How the Problems Are Solved
- Build a binary with `go build -race -cover ....`
- Integration tests only construct clients. The server remains running
in the background.
- The integration package and tested packages now fully utilize the API.
No more direct database access trough `query` and `command` packages.
- Use Makefile recipes to setup, start and stop the server in the
background.
- The binary has the race detector enabled
- Init and setup jobs are configured to halt immediately on race
condition
- Because the server runs in the background, races are only logged. When
the server is stopped and race logs exist, the Makefile recipe will
throw an error and print the logs.
- Makefile recipes include logic to print logs and convert coverage
reports after the server is stopped.
- Some tests need a downstream HTTP server to make requests, like quota
and milestones. A new `integration/sink` package creates an HTTP server
and uses websockets to forward HTTP request back to the test packages.
The package API uses Go channels for abstraction and easy usage.
# Additional Changes
- Integration test files already used the `//go:build integration`
directive. In order to properly split integration from unit tests,
integration test files need to be in a `integration_test` subdirectory
of their package.
- `UseIsolatedInstance` used to overwrite the `Tester.Client` for each
instance. Now a `Instance` object is returned with a gRPC client that is
connected to the isolated instance's hostname.
- The `Tester` type is now `Instance`. The object is created for the
first instance, used by default in any test. Isolated instances are also
`Instance` objects and therefore benefit from the same methods and
values. The first instance and any other us capable of creating an
isolated instance over the system API.
- All test packages run in an Isolated instance by calling
`NewInstance()`
- Individual tests that use an isolated instance use `t.Parallel()`
# Additional Context
- Closes#6684
- https://go.dev/doc/articles/race_detector
- https://go.dev/doc/build-cover
---------
Co-authored-by: Stefan Benz <[email protected]>
jmaretteandGitHub
Stefan BenzandGitHub
