GoTrue - Authentication and User Management by Supabase

GoTrue is a user management and authentication server written in Go that powers Supabase's features such as:

Issuing JWTs
Row Level Security with PostgREST
User management
Sign in with email, password, magic link, phone number
Sign in with external providers (Google, Apple, Facebook, Discord, ...)

It is originally based on the excellent GoTrue codebase by Netlify, however both have diverged significantly in features and capabilities.

Quick Start

Create a .env file to store your own custom env vars. See example.env

Start the local postgres database in a postgres container: docker-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml up postgres
Build the gotrue binary: make build . You should see an output like this:

go build -ldflags "-X github.com/supabase/gotrue/cmd.Version=`git rev-parse HEAD`"
GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -ldflags "-X github.com/supabase/gotrue/cmd.Version=`git rev-parse HEAD`" -o gotrue-arm64

Execute the gotrue binary: ./gotrue

If you have docker installed

Create a .env.docker file to store your own custom env vars. See example.docker.env

make build
make dev
docker ps should show 2 docker containers (gotrue_postgresql and gotrue_gotrue)
That's it! Visit the health checkendpoint to confirm that gotrue is running.

Running in production

Running an authentication server in production is not an easy feat. We recommend using Supabase Auth which gets regular security updates.

Otherwise, please make sure you setup a process to promptly update to the latest version. You can do that by following this repository, specifically the Releases and Security Advisories sections.

Backward compatibility

GoTrue uses the Semantic Versioning scheme. Here are some further clarifications on backward compatibility guarantees:

Go API compatibility

GoTrue is not meant to be used as a Go library. There are no guarantees on backward API compatibility when used this way regardless which version number changes.

Patch

Changes to the patch version guarantees backward compatibility with:

Database objects (tables, columns, indexes, functions).
REST API
JWT structure
Configuration

Guaranteed examples:

A column won't change its type.
A table won't change its primary key.
An index will not be removed.
A uniqueness constraint will not be removed.
A REST API will not be removed.
Parameters to REST APIs will work equivalently as before (or better, if a bug has been fixed).
Configuration will not change.

Not guaranteed examples:

A table may add new columns.
Columns in a table may be reordered.
Non-unique constraints may be removed (database level checks, null, default values).
JWT may add new properties.

Minor

Changes to minor version guarantees backward compatibility with:

REST API
JWT structure
Configuration

Exceptions to these guarantees will be made only when serious security issues are found that can't be remedied in any other way.

Guaranteed examples:

Existing APIs may be deprecated but continue working for the next few minor version releases.
Configuration changes may become deprecated but continue working for the next few minor version releases.
Already issued JWTs will be accepted, but new JWTs may be with a different structure (but usually similar).

Not guaranteed examples:

Removal of JWT fields after a deprecation notice.
Removal of certain APIs after a deprecation notice.
Removal of sign-in with external providers, after a deprecation notice.
Deletion, truncation, significant schema changes to tables, indexes, views, functions.

We aim to provide a deprecation notice in execution logs for at least two major version releases or two weeks if multiple releases go out. Compatibility will be guaranteed while the notice is live.

Major

Changes to the major version do not guarantee any backward compatibility with previous versions.

Inherited features

Certain inherited features from the Netlify codebase are not supported by Supabase and they may be removed without prior notice in the future. This is a comprehensive list of those features:

Multi-tenancy via the instances table i.e. GOTRUE_MULTI_INSTANCE_MODE configuration parameter.
System user (zero UUID user).
Super admin via the is_super_admin column.
SAML sign-in provider via the GOTRUE_SAML_ENABLED configuration parameter. (A different implementation for SAML may appear in the future which will be supported.)
Support for MySQL based databases. (Only Postgres is supported.)
Group information in JWTs via GOTRUE_JWT_ADMIN_GROUP_NAME and other configuration fields.
Symmetrics JWTs. In the future it is very likely that GoTrue will begin issuing asymmetric JWTs (subject to configuration), so do not rely on the assumption that only HS256 signed JWTs will be issued long term.

Note that this is not an exhaustive list and it may change.

Best practices when self-hosting

These are some best practices to follow when self-hosting to ensure backward compatibility with GoTrue:

Do not modify the schema managed by GoTrue. You can see all of the migrations in the migrations directory.
Do not rely on schema and structure of data in the database. Always use GoTrue APIs and JWTs to infer information about users.
Always run GoTrue behind a TLS-capable proxy such as a load balancer, CDN, nginx or other similar software.

Configuration

You may configure GoTrue using either a configuration file named .env, environment variables, or a combination of both. Environment variables are prefixed with GOTRUE_, and will always have precedence over values provided via file.

Top-Level

GOTRUE_SITE_URL=https://example.netlify.com/

SITE_URL - string required

The base URL your site is located at. Currently used in combination with other settings to construct URLs used in emails. Any URI that shares a host with SITE_URL is a permitted value for redirect_to params (see /authorize etc.).

URI_ALLOW_LIST - string

A comma separated list of URIs (e.g. "https://foo.example.com,https://*.foo.example.com,https://bar.example.com") which are permitted as valid redirect_to destinations. Defaults to []. Supports wildcard matching through globbing. e.g. https://*.foo.example.com will allow https://a.foo.example.com and https://b.foo.example.com to be accepted. Globbing is also supported on subdomains. e.g. https://foo.example.com/* will allow https://foo.example.com/page1 and https://foo.example.com/page2 to be accepted.

For more common glob patterns, check out the following link.

OPERATOR_TOKEN - string Multi-instance mode only

The shared secret with an operator (usually Netlify) for this microservice. Used to verify requests have been proxied through the operator and the payload values can be trusted.

DISABLE_SIGNUP - bool

When signup is disabled the only way to create new users is through invites. Defaults to false, all signups enabled.

GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_EMAIL_ENABLED - bool

Use this to disable email signups (users can still use external oauth providers to sign up / sign in)

GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_PHONE_ENABLED - bool

Use this to disable phone signups (users can still use external oauth providers to sign up / sign in)

GOTRUE_RATE_LIMIT_HEADER - string

Header on which to rate limit the /token endpoint.

GOTRUE_RATE_LIMIT_EMAIL_SENT - string

Rate limit the number of emails sent per hr on the following endpoints: /signup, /invite, /magiclink, /recover, /otp, & /user.

GOTRUE_PASSWORD_MIN_LENGTH - int

Minimum password length, defaults to 6.

GOTRUE_SECURITY_REFRESH_TOKEN_ROTATION_ENABLED - bool

If refresh token rotation is enabled, gotrue will automatically detect malicious attempts to reuse a revoked refresh token. When a malicious attempt is detected, gotrue immediately revokes all tokens that descended from the offending token.

GOTRUE_SECURITY_REFRESH_TOKEN_REUSE_INTERVAL - string

This setting is only applicable if GOTRUE_SECURITY_REFRESH_TOKEN_ROTATION_ENABLED is enabled. The reuse interval for a refresh token allows for exchanging the refresh token multiple times during the interval to support concurrency or offline issues. During the reuse interval, gotrue will not consider using a revoked token as a malicious attempt and will simply return the child refresh token.

Only the previous revoked token can be reused. Using an old refresh token way before the current valid refresh token will trigger the reuse detection.

API

GOTRUE_API_HOST=localhost
PORT=9999

API_HOST - string

Hostname to listen on.

PORT (no prefix) / API_PORT - number

Port number to listen on. Defaults to 8081.

API_ENDPOINT - string Multi-instance mode only

Controls what endpoint Netlify can access this API on.

REQUEST_ID_HEADER - string

If you wish to inherit a request ID from the incoming request, specify the name in this value.

Database

GOTRUE_DB_DRIVER=postgres
DATABASE_URL=root@localhost/gotrue

DB_DRIVER - string required

Chooses what dialect of database you want. Must be postgres.

DATABASE_URL (no prefix) / DB_DATABASE_URL - string required

Connection string for the database.

GOTRUE_DB_MAX_POOL_SIZE - int

Sets the maximum number of open connections to the database. Defaults to 0 which is equivalent to an "unlimited" number of connections.

DB_NAMESPACE - string

Adds a prefix to all table names.

Migrations Note

Migrations are applied automatically when you run ./gotrue. However, you also have the option to rerun the migrations via the following methods:

If built locally: ./gotrue migrate
Using Docker: docker run --rm gotrue gotrue migrate

Logging

LOG_LEVEL=debug # available without GOTRUE prefix (exception)
GOTRUE_LOG_FILE=/var/log/go/gotrue.log

LOG_LEVEL - string

Controls what log levels are output. Choose from panic, fatal, error, warn, info, or debug. Defaults to info.

LOG_FILE - string

If you wish logs to be written to a file, set log_file to a valid file path.

Observability

GoTrue has basic observability built in. It is able to export OpenTelemetry metrics and traces to a collector.

Tracing

To enable tracing configure these variables:

GOTRUE_TRACING_ENABLED - boolean

GOTRUE_TRACING_EXPORTER - string only opentracing (deprecated) and opentelemetry supported

Make sure you also configure the OpenTelemetry Exporter configuration for your collector or service.

For example, if you use Honeycomb.io you should set these standard OpenTelemetry OTLP variables:

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=gotrue
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://api.honeycomb.io:443
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="x-honeycomb-team=<API-KEY>,x-honeycomb-dataset=gotrue"

Metrics

To enable metrics configure these variables:

GOTRUE_METRICS_ENABLED - boolean

GOTRUE_METRICS_EXPORTER - string only opentelemetry and prometheus supported

Make sure you also configure the OpenTelemetry Exporter configuration for your collector or service.

If you use the prometheus exporter, the server host and port can be configured using these standard OpenTelemetry variables:

OTEL_EXPORTER_PROMETHEUS_HOST - IP address, default 0.0.0.0

OTEL_EXPORTER_PROMETHEUS_PORT - port number, default 9100

The metrics are exported on the / path on the server.

If you use the opentelemetry exporter, the metrics are pushed to the collector.

For example, if you use Honeycomb.io you should set these standard OpenTelemetry OTLP variables:

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=gotrue
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://api.honeycomb.io:443
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="x-honeycomb-team=<API-KEY>,x-honeycomb-dataset=gotrue"

Note that Honeycomb.io requires a paid plan to ingest metrics.

If you need to debug an issue with traces or metrics not being pushed, you can set DEBUG=true to get more insights from the OpenTelemetry SDK.

Custom resource attributes

When using the OpenTelemetry tracing or metrics exporter you can define custom resource attributes using the standard OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES environment variable.

A default attribute gotrue.version is provided containing the build version.

Tracing HTTP routes

All HTTP calls to the GoTrue API are traced. Routes use the parametrized version of the route, and the values for the route parameters can be found as the http.route.params.<route-key> span attribute.

For example, the following request:

GET /admin/users/4acde936-82dc-4552-b851-831fb8ce0927/

will be traced as:

http.method = GET
http.route = /admin/users/{user_id}
http.route.params.user_id = 4acde936-82dc-4552-b851-831fb8ce0927

Go runtime and HTTP metrics

All of the Go runtime metrics are exposed. Some HTTP metrics are also collected by default.

JSON Web Tokens (JWT)

GOTRUE_JWT_SECRET=supersecretvalue
GOTRUE_JWT_EXP=3600
GOTRUE_JWT_AUD=netlify

JWT_SECRET - string required

The secret used to sign JWT tokens with.

JWT_EXP - number

How long tokens are valid for, in seconds. Defaults to 3600 (1 hour).

JWT_AUD - string

The default JWT audience. Use audiences to group users.

JWT_ADMIN_GROUP_NAME - string

The name of the admin group (if enabled). Defaults to admin.

JWT_DEFAULT_GROUP_NAME - string

The default group to assign all new users to.

External Authentication Providers

We support apple, azure, bitbucket, discord, facebook, github, gitlab, google, keycloak, linkedin, notion, spotify, slack, twitch, twitter and workos for external authentication.

Use the names as the keys underneath external to configure each separately.

GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GITHUB_ENABLED=true
GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=myappclientid
GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GITHUB_SECRET=clientsecretvaluessssh
GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_GITHUB_REDIRECT_URI=http://localhost:3000/callback

No external providers are required, but you must provide the required values if you choose to enable any.

EXTERNAL_X_ENABLED - bool

Whether this external provider is enabled or not

EXTERNAL_X_CLIENT_ID - string required

The OAuth2 Client ID registered with the external provider.

EXTERNAL_X_SECRET - string required

The OAuth2 Client Secret provided by the external provider when you registered.

EXTERNAL_X_REDIRECT_URI - string required

The URI a OAuth2 provider will redirect to with the code and state values.

EXTERNAL_X_URL - string

The base URL used for constructing the URLs to request authorization and access tokens. Used by gitlab and keycloak. For gitlab it defaults to https://gitlab.com. For keycloak you need to set this to your instance, for example: https://keycloak.example.com/realms/myrealm

Apple OAuth

To try out external authentication with Apple locally, you will need to do the following:

Remap localhost to <my_custom_dns > in your /etc/hosts config.

Configure gotrue to serve HTTPS traffic over localhost by replacing ListenAndServe in api.go with:

   func (a *API) ListenAndServe(hostAndPort string) {
     log := logrus.WithField("component", "api")
     path, err := os.Getwd()
     if err != nil {
       log.Println(err)
     }
     server := &http.Server{
       Addr:    hostAndPort,
       Handler: a.handler,
     }
     done := make(chan struct{})
     defer close(done)
     go func() {
       waitForTermination(log, done)
       ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), time.Minute)
       defer cancel()
       server.Shutdown(ctx)
     }()
     if err := server.ListenAndServeTLS("PATH_TO_CRT_FILE", "PATH_TO_KEY_FILE"); err != http.ErrServerClosed {
       log.WithError(err).Fatal("http server listen failed")
     }
 }

Generate the crt and key file. See here for more information.
Generate the GOTRUE_EXTERNAL_APPLE_SECRET by following this post!

E-Mail

Sending email is not required, but highly recommended for password recovery. If enabled, you must provide the required values below.

GOTRUE_SMTP_HOST=smtp.mandrillapp.com
GOTRUE_SMTP_PORT=587
GOTRUE_SMTP_USER=smtp-delivery@example.com
GOTRUE_SMTP_PASS=correcthorsebatterystaple
GOTRUE_SMTP_ADMIN_EMAIL=support@example.com
GOTRUE_MAILER_SUBJECTS_CONFIRMATION="Please confirm"

SMTP_ADMIN_EMAIL - string required

The From email address for all emails sent.

SMTP_HOST - string required

The mail server hostname to send emails through.

SMTP_PORT - number required

The port number to connect to the mail server on.

SMTP_USER - string

If the mail server requires authentication, the username to use.

SMTP_PASS - string

If the mail server requires authentication, the password to use.

SMTP_MAX_FREQUENCY - number

Controls the minimum amount of time that must pass before sending another signup confirmation or password reset email. The value is the number of seconds. Defaults to 900 (15 minutes).

SMTP_SENDER_NAME - string

Sets the name of the sender. Defaults to the SMTP_ADMIN_EMAIL if not used.

MAILER_AUTOCONFIRM - bool

If you do not require email confirmation, you may set this to true. Defaults to false.

MAILER_OTP_EXP - number

Controls the duration an email link or otp is valid for.

MAILER_URLPATHS_INVITE - string

URL path to use in the user invite email. Defaults to /.

MAILER_URLPATHS_CONFIRMATION - string

URL path to use in the signup confirmation email. Defaults to /.

MAILER_URLPATHS_RECOVERY - string

URL path to use in the password reset email. Defaults to /.

MAILER_URLPATHS_EMAIL_CHANGE - string

URL path to use in the email change confirmation email. Defaults to /.

MAILER_SUBJECTS_INVITE - string

Email subject to use for user invite. Defaults to You have been invited.

MAILER_SUBJECTS_CONFIRMATION - string

Email subject to use for signup confirmation. Defaults to Confirm Your Signup.

MAILER_SUBJECTS_RECOVERY - string

Email subject to use for password reset. Defaults to Reset Your Password.

MAILER_SUBJECTS_MAGIC_LINK - string

Email subject to use for magic link email. Defaults to Your Magic Link.

MAILER_SUBJECTS_EMAIL_CHANGE - string

Email subject to use for email change confirmation. Defaults to Confirm Email Change.

MAILER_TEMPLATES_INVITE - string

URL path to an email template to use when inviting a user. SiteURL, Email, and ConfirmationURL variables are available.