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Stages

Stages are one of the fundamental building blocks in authentik, along with flows and policies.

A stage represents a single verification or logic step within a flow. You can bind one or more stages to a flow to create a customized, flexible login and authentication process.

In the following diagram of the default-authentication-flow, you see multiple stages, or steps, in the authentication process for a user. Policies are bound to some stages; this provides for dynamic application of a specific stage if the policy criteria is met.

Create a stage​

To create a stage, follow these steps:

  1. Log in as an admin to authentik, and go to the Admin interface.
  2. In the Admin interface, navigate to Flows and Stages > Stages.
  3. Click New Stage, select the stage type, define the stage using the configuration settings, and then click Create Stage.

After creating the stage, you can use bindings to determine whether the stage runs in a flow.

Stage bindings​

A stage binding connects a stage to a flow. The binding adds that stage as a step in the flow.

You can use bindings to determine which stages are presented to a user or group.

For an overview of binding types and behavior, see Bindings in authentik.

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Some stages and flows do not allow user or group bindings. In some authentication or enrollment scenarios, the flow plan does not yet know the current user or group.

Bind a stage to a flow​

To bind a stage to a flow, follow these steps:

  1. Log in as an admin to authentik, and go to the Admin interface.
  2. In the Admin interface, navigate to Flows and Stages > Flows.
  3. In the list of flows, click the name of the flow to which you want to bind one or more stages.
  4. On the Flow page, click the Stage Bindings tab at the top.
  5. Click Create or bind....
  6. Select Existing Stage to bind an existing stage to the flow, or select Bind New Stage to create a new stage and bind it to the flow.

Control access to a stage​

There are several ways to control access to a specific stage of a flow:

Bind users and groups to a flow's stage binding​

You can use bindings to determine whether a stage is presented to a single user or to members of a group. Bind the user or group to the stage binding within a specific flow. For example, if a flow contains an MFA stage that should run only for certain users, bind the appropriate group or user to that stage binding.

To bind a user or a group to a stage binding for a specific flow, follow these steps:

  1. Log in as an admin to authentik, and go to the Admin interface.
  2. In the Admin interface, navigate to Flows and Stages > Flows.
  3. In the list of flows, click the name of the flow to which you want to bind one or more stages.
  4. On that Flow's detail page, click the Stage Bindings tab at the top.
  5. In the list, locate the stage binding to which you want to bind a user or group, and then click the caret (>) to expand the stage binding details.
  6. In the expanded area, click Create or bind....
  7. Under Bind Existing, select either Bind a user or Bind a group.
  8. In the drop-down list, select the group or user.
  9. Optionally, configure additional settings for the binding, and then click Create to create the binding and close the box.

Learn more about the different types of bindings in authentik and working with them.