kratos README

The project's README from github.com/ory/kratos. As one markdown file: README.md.

Ory Kratos - Cloud native identity and user management

Chat · Discussions · Newsletter · Docs · Try Ory Network · Jobs

Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system for cloud native applications. It centralizes login, registration, recovery, verification, and profile management flows so your services consume them instead of reimplementing them.

Table of contents

What is Ory Kratos?

Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system that follows cloud architecture best practices. It focuses on core identity workflows that almost every application needs:

We recommend starting with the Ory Kratos introduction docs to learn more about its architecture, feature set, and how it compares to other systems.

Why Ory Kratos

Ory Kratos is designed to:

Migrating from Auth0, Okta, and similar providers

If you are migrating from Auth0, Okta, or another identity provider that uses OAuth2 / OpenID Connect based login, consider using Ory Hydra + Ory Kratos together:

This combination is often a drop-in replacement for OAuth2 and OpenID Connect capabilities at the protocol level. In practice, you update client configuration and endpoints to point to Hydra, migrate identities into Kratos, and keep your applications speaking the same OAuth2 / OIDC protocols they already use.

Deployment options

You can run Ory Kratos in two main ways:

Use Ory Kratos on the Ory Network

The Ory Network is the fastest way to use Ory services in production. Ory Identities is powered by the open source Ory Kratos server and is API compatible.

The Ory Network provides:

Sign up for a free developer account to get started.

Self-host Ory Kratos

You can run Ory Kratos yourself for full control over infrastructure, deployment, and customization.

The install guide explains how to:

This guide uses the open source distribution to get you started without license requirements. It is a great fit for individuals, researchers, hackers, and companies that want to experiment, prototype, or run unimportant workloads without SLAs. You get the full core engine, and you are free to inspect, extend, and build it from source.

If you run Kratos as part of a business-critical system, for example login and account recovery for all your users, you should use a commercial agreement to reduce operational and security risk. The Ory Enterprise License (OEL) layers on top of self-hosted Kratos and provides:

For guaranteed CVE fixes, current enterprise builds, advanced features, and support in production, you need a valid Ory Enterprise License and access to the Ory Enterprise Docker registry. To learn more, contact the Ory team.

Quickstart

Install the Ory CLI and create a new project to try Ory Identities.

# Install the Ory CLI if you do not have it yet:
bash <(curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ory/meta/master/install.sh) -b . ory
sudo mv ./ory /usr/local/bin/

# Sign in or sign up
ory auth

# Create a new project
ory create project --create-workspace "Ory Open Source" --name "GitHub Quickstart"  --use-project
ory open ax login

Who is using it?

The Ory community stands on the shoulders of individuals, companies, and maintainers. The Ory team thanks everyone involved - from submitting bug reports and feature requests, to contributing patches and documentation. The Ory community counts more than 50.000 members and is growing. The Ory stack protects 7.000.000.000+ API requests every day across thousands of companies. None of this would have been possible without each and everyone of you!

The following list represents companies that have accompanied us along the way and that have made outstanding contributions to our ecosystem. If you think that your company deserves a spot here, reach out to [email protected] now!

Name Logo Website Case Study
OpenAI OpenAI openai.com OpenAI Case Study
Fandom Fandom fandom.com Fandom Case Study
Lumin Lumin luminpdf.com Lumin Case Study
Sencrop Sencrop sencrop.com Sencrop Case Study
OSINT Industries OSINT Industries osint.industries OSINT Industries Case Study
HGV HGV hgv.it HGV Case Study
Maxroll Maxroll maxroll.gg Maxroll Case Study
Zezam Zezam zezam.io Zezam Case Study
T.RowePrice T.RowePrice troweprice.com
Mistral Mistral mistral.ai
Axel Springer Axel Springer axelspringer.com
Hemnet Hemnet hemnet.se
Cisco Cisco cisco.com
Presidencia de la República Dominicana Presidencia de la República Dominicana presidencia.gob.do
Moonpig Moonpig moonpig.com
Booster Booster choosebooster.com
Zaptec Zaptec zaptec.com
Klarna Klarna klarna.com
Raspberry PI Foundation Raspberry PI Foundation raspberrypi.org
Tulip Tulip Retail tulip.com
Hootsuite Hootsuite hootsuite.com
Segment Segment segment.com
Arduino Arduino arduino.cc
Sainsbury's Sainsbury's sainsburys.co.uk
Contraste Contraste contraste.com
inMusic InMusic inmusicbrands.com
Buhta Buhta buhta.com
Amplitude amplitude.com amplitude.com
TIER IV Kyma Project Serlo Padis
Cloudbear Security Onion Solutions Factly All My Funds
Nortal OrderMyGear R2Devops Paralus
dyrector.io pinniped.dev pvotal.tech

Many thanks to all individual contributors

kratos (ory/kratos)

Searching Database…

13.9K ·GitHub
Kratos
What is this?An open source, API-first identity and user management server for cloud-native apps: it centralizes login, registration, recovery, verification, and profile management so your app doesn't reimplement them.
Do I import Kratos into my app, or run it as a separate service?You run it as a separate server and call it over HTTP APIs — it's headless, working with any UI framework through browser and native app flows rather than shipping its own widgets.
How do I get it running?Quickest: install the Ory CLI and create a new project. To self-host, install on Linux, macOS, Windows, or Docker, wire up a database, and deploy to Kubernetes or build from source.
What does it need to run besides the server itself?A database: PostgreSQL, MySQL, or CockroachDB. It's a Go server that runs in Docker or Kubernetes; building from source needs Go and Make.
What's missing from the free open source version?The Apache-2.0 core engine is complete, but SCIM, SAML, organization SSO, CAPTCHAs, and CVE patches with SLAs require the paid Ory Enterprise License — the README advises one for business-critical logins.
Where does my users' identity data live?Self-hosted, in your own databases under your full control. The managed Ory Network instead offers GDPR-friendly storage with data locality and compliance in mind.
Do I have to build my own login UI?Yes, for self-hosted Kratos — it's headless and works with any UI framework through browser and native app flows. The managed Ory Network adds prebuilt login, registration, and account management pages and components if you'd rather skip that work.
Is the free self-hosted edition production-ready?Yes — you get the full core engine under Apache-2.0 with no license requirements, and the README lists production users like Klarna and Cisco. For business-critical systems it still recommends a commercial agreement for security releases with SLAs and enterprise features.
Why does the migration guide mention Ory Hydra?Kratos covers identity, credentials, and user-facing flows, while Hydra is the OAuth2 and OpenID Connect provider that issues tokens. Replacing an IdP like Auth0 or Okta usually means running both together and pointing your apps at Hydra.
What are similar projects?zitadel, hydra, dex, casdoor, django-allauth, keycloak, authelia, logto
Which topics is it in?registration, identity-management, login, cockroachdb, identity, totp, passkeys, iam, 2fa, oidc, sso, oauth2
Creator
ory
Size
96.1 MB
Stars
13.9K
Updated
CommitJul 29Releasev26.2.0Mar 20
Age
8y
Commits · 90 Days