Litestar Authentication

Authentication

Execution Workflow

1. Choose the identity mechanism first: session, JWT header, JWT cookie, OAuth2 password bearer, or custom middleware based on client and trust boundaries.
2. Attach authentication once at app scope with on_app_init or middleware.
3. Configure exclusion rules explicitly for login, schema, health, and other public routes.
4. Use request.user and request.auth only after authentication has been established.
5. Apply guards separately for authorization checks.
6. Keep missing or invalid credential behavior consistent with the exception-handling strategy.

Core Rules

• Keep authentication separate from request parsing and authorization.
• Let request parsing validate input fields before auth-specific business logic where possible.
• Prefer built-in security backends before custom middleware.
• Use custom middleware only when the identity source does not fit a built-in backend.
• Treat request.user and request.auth as authenticated context, not parsing shortcuts.
• Keep exclusion rules narrow and reviewable.
• Normalize identity failures to 401 behavior unless the project has a documented alternative.

Decision Guide

• Use SessionAuth for browser-first applications with server-managed sessions.
• Use JWTAuth for token-in-header API clients.
• Use JWTCookieAuth for browser flows where token cookies are intentional.
• Use OAuth2PasswordBearerAuth when password-flow token issuance semantics are required.
• Use AbstractAuthenticationMiddleware when the credential source or validation logic is custom.
• Use litestar-security when the task includes authorization policy, secrets, and defense-in-depth concerns beyond identity wiring.

Reference Files

Read only the sections you need:

• For custom middleware, built-in backends, request auth context, exclusion rules, and login patterns, read references/auth-patterns.md.

Recommended Defaults

• Keep authentication middleware or backend registration at app scope.
• Exclude only explicitly public routes.
• Access authenticated context through typed Request or ASGIConnection after auth runs.
• Keep token issuance and logout flows explicit and testable.
• Hand off 401 / 403 response formatting to litestar-exception-handling.

Anti-Patterns

• Parsing auth headers manually in every route handler.
• Mixing authorization policy into authentication middleware.
• Treating request.user as available on routes excluded from authentication.
• Using broad path exclusions that create accidental public surface area.
• Hardcoding secrets or sample tokens outside local examples.

Validation Checklist

• Confirm protected endpoints reject missing or invalid credentials.
• Confirm public routes are public only when explicitly excluded.
• Confirm request.user and request.auth have the expected types on authenticated routes.
• Confirm login and logout flows produce the intended token or session behavior.
• Confirm identity failures line up with the exception-handling contract.
• Confirm tests cover both authenticated and unauthenticated paths.

Cross-Skill Handoffs

• Use litestar-requests for header, cookie, and body parsing concerns that are not identity-specific.
• Use litestar-security for authorization, secret hygiene, and broader security posture.
• Use litestar-exception-handling to standardize 401 and 403 contracts.
• Use litestar-testing for auth boundary, exclusion-rule, and token-flow tests.

Litestar References

• https://docs.litestar.dev/latest/usage/security/abstract-authentication-middleware.html
• https://docs.litestar.dev/latest/usage/security/security-backends.html
• https://docs.litestar.dev/latest/usage/security/jwt.html
• https://docs.litestar.dev/latest/usage/security/excluding-and-including-endpoints.html