Files
zitadel/apps/docs
8dac4e2b54 docs: add instance administrator hardening guide (#12678)
# Which Problems Are Solved

- Operators lack a single guide for separating instance-level principals
(break-glass, login client) from tenant organizations.
- Login policy and IdP behavior for platform accounts is easy to
conflate with customer org settings when admins share one organization.
- There is no documented procedure to inventory instance administrators
or detect unexpected grants over time.

# How the Problems Are Solved

- Add Hardening instance administrators covering:
- Dedicated platform organization layout and why login, password, and
lockout policies matter for operator accounts.
- Login client (`IAM_LOGIN_CLIENT`) and break-glass (`IAM_OWNER`)
hygiene.
- Periodic review with Internal Permission Service v2
`ListAdministrators` (instance and platform org filters).
- Actions v2 webhooks for `instance.member.*` and `org.member.*` events
(with payload interpretation and alert hints).
- Event API polling alternative for SIEM/batch pipelines
(`instance.member.*` and platform-org `org.member.*`).
- Register the page in the docs sidebar under Roles & Permissions.
- Cross-link from administrators, production checklists, login-client
setup, and service account authentication guides.

# Additional Changes

- Clarify instance vs org IdP availability depends on effective login
policy and linked providers (not automatic for all orgs).
- Note deprecated Admin API `POST /admin/v1/members/_search` vs v2
`ListAdministrators`.

# Additional Context

- Operational hardening guide only (no product authz changes).

---------

Co-authored-by: Cursor <[email protected]>
2026-09-04 15:26:32 +02:00
..
2026-01-30 18:11:12 +00:00

@zitadel/docs

Documentation for Zitadel, built with Fumadocs and Next.js.

Getting Started

Ensure you have followed the root quick start to set up dependencies.

Local Development

Ensure all dependencies are installed:

pnpm install

Start the development server:

pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:dev

The site will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Scripts

Key scripts for documentation workflows:

Script Description
dev Starts the development server.
build Builds the production application.
fetch:remote-content Fetches remote tags and referenced content.
generate Runs all generation steps (fetch:remote-content, generate:proto-docs, generate:api-reference, generate:index-pages).
check:links Validates content integrity (broken links, missing frontmatter, schema errors).
check-types Validates typescript types.
test Runs all validation steps (check-types, check:links).
lint checks for code style and syntax errors (ESLint).
clean Cleans the build output and generated files.

Validation

  • Code Quality: Run pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:lint to check for syntax and style issues in JS/TS/MDX files.
  • Content Integrity: Run pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:check-links to validate content structure, including:
    • Broken internal links
    • Missing required front-matter (e.g., title)
    • Image references

Troubleshooting

Issue: Nx configuration not found or "nx" command not found

If you see errors like:

 NX   Cannot find configuration for task @zitadel/zitadel:@zitadel/docs:generate

Pass --verbose to see the stacktrace.

or

pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:dev
 ERR_PNPM_RECURSIVE_EXEC_FIRST_FAIL  Command "nx" not found

Did you mean "pnpm nx"?

Root cause: Your dependency cache or node_modules is out of sync.

Solution: Run these commands from the repository root in order:

  1. Clear node_modules: rm -rf node_modules — removes the installed dependency folder
  2. Clear pnpm cache: pnpm cache delete — clears pnpm's internal package cache
  3. Reinstall dependencies: pnpm install — reinstalls all dependencies fresh
  4. Test the setup: pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:generate — verifies everything works

This resolves 99% of setup-related issues.

Contributing

Build Process

The docs build process automatically handles the following steps via generate:

  1. Downloads required protoc plugins.
  2. Generates gRPC documentation from proto files.
  3. Generates API documentation from OpenAPI specs.
  4. Generates index files for directory structures.

Style Guide

  • Variables: Use environment variables in code snippets where possible.
  • Embedded Content: Use _filename.mdx for content embedded in other pages (not indexed individually).
  • Code Embedding: Use the file property in code blocks to embed code from the repo.
  • Voice: Use active voice and sentence case for titles.

Refer to the Google Developer Style Guide for general guidelines.

Adding Content

All documentation content is located in the content directory. Note that the system strictly accepts only .mdx files.

To add a new page:

  1. Create a .mdx file in the appropriate subdirectory of content.
  2. Register the new page in the sidebar settings at lib/sidebar-data.ts to make it accessible in the navigation.

Pull Requests

Use docs(<scope>): <short summary> for PR titles. Pass quality checks before submitting:

pnpm nx run @zitadel/docs:build