Okta

Okta API Skill

Overview

The Okta API manages workforce and customer identities. This skill covers the @okta/okta-sdk-nodejs library for backend lifecycle management.

Installation

npm install @okta/okta-sdk-nodejs
pip install okta

Authentication

Use an SSWS (Secure Socket Web Server) API Token provided in the Authorization: SSWS <token> header.

Core Concepts

• User: An identity in the Universal Directory.
• Group: Logical collection of users.
• Application: An integration (SAML/OIDC) users can access.

Common Workflows

1. Instantiate Client.
2. Fetch a user via client.getUser(id).
3. Modify profile attributes and call user.update().

Error Handling

Handle OktaApiError. Pay attention to the errorCauses array for specific field validation failures during user creation.

Security

SSWS Tokens are long-lived and bypass MFA. Store them in secure vaults (e.g., AWS Secrets Manager) and rotate them regularly.

Rate Limits

Limits are concurrent and per-endpoint. Core endpoints (like /api/v1/users) have high limits, while search endpoints have strict limits.

Best Practices

Use pagination for querying users (collection.each()) to avoid loading millions of records into memory.

Troubleshooting

If a user is locked out, ensure you are calling the /api/v1/users/{id}/lifecycle/unlock endpoint correctly.

References

• API Reference

Why use this skill

Use this when your agent works with okta — structured patterns beat pasted docs and prevent common hallucinations.

AI pitfalls

• Using outdated SDK or API versions from training data
• Inventing environment variable names
• Omitting error handling and retry logic

Production checklist

• Secrets in environment variables, not source code
• Error handling and logging in place
• Rate limits and timeouts configured

Related skills

• oauth2 — implements
• openid-connect — implements

Last Verified: 2026-07-02