Deployment & Authorization

Nebraska uses either a noop authentication or OIDC to authenticate and authorize users.

Preparing the database for Nebraska

Nebraska uses the PostgreSQL database, and expects the used database to be set to the UTC timezone.

For a quick setup of PostgreSQL for Nebraska’s development, you can use the postgres container as follows:

• Start Postgres:

  • docker run --rm -d --name nebraska-postgres-dev -p 5432:5432 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=nebraska postgres

• Create the database for Nebraska (by default it is nebraska):

  • psql postgres://postgres:nebraska@localhost:5432/postgres -c 'create database nebraska;'

• Set the timezone to Nebraska’s database:

  • psql postgres://postgres:nebraska@localhost:5432/nebraska -c 'set timezone = "utc";'

Tuning PostgreSQL auto-vacuum

Autovacuum and autoanalyze in PostgreSQL are effectively disabled when tables are very large. This is because the default is 20% of a table (and 10% of a table for analyze).

We advise to change the mentioned configuration in order to have autovacuum and autoanalyse run when about 5,000 rows change. This value was chosen based on getting the autovacuum to run every day, as it’s large enough to not cause the autovac to run all the time, but about the right size to make a difference for query statistics and reducing table bloat.

You can verify (and eventually use) this SQL file where we have set up these changes.

The analyze threshold was chosen at half the autovacuum threshold because the defaults are set at half.

Deploying Nebraska for testing on local computer (noop authentication)

• Go to the nebraska project directory and run make

• Start the database (see the section above if you need a quick setup).

• Start the Nebraska backend:

  • nebraska -auth-mode noop -http-static-dir $PWD/frontend/dist -http-log

• In the browser, access http://localhost:8000

Deploying Nebraska with OIDC authentication mode

⚠️ OIDC Implementation Updated

Nebraska now uses Authorization Code Flow + PKCE with public clients for enhanced security.

• New in v2.13: Frontend handles OIDC flow directly, no client secrets required
• Upgrading? See the OIDC Migration Guide

Preparing Keycloak as an OIDC provider for Nebraska

• Run Keycloak locally in dev mode using docker:

  docker run -d --name keycloak \
    -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
    -e KC_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin \
    -e KC_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin \
    -e KC_HTTP_ENABLED=true \
    -e KC_HOSTNAME_STRICT=false \
    -e KC_HOSTNAME_STRICT_HTTPS=false \
    quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.3.4 \
    start-dev
  

• Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser to access keycloak UI and login with the username admin and password as admin.

Creating a client

1. Click on Clients menu option and click Create.
2. Set the client name as nebraska and click Save.
3. Change the Access Type to public (for SPA/public client).
4. Ensure Direct Access Grants Enabled is OFF (not needed for PKCE flow).
5. Ensure Standard Flow Enabled is ON (for Authorization Code Flow).
6. Set Valid Redirect URIs to http://localhost:8000/auth/callback.
7. Set Valid post logout redirect URIs to http://localhost:8000/.
8. Set Web Origins to http://localhost:8000 (use + to allow all Valid Redirect URIs origins for CORS).

Creating Roles

Member Role

1. Click on Roles menu option and select Create Role.
2. Provide a name for the member role, here we will use nebraska_member.
3. Click Save.

Admin Role

1. Click on Roles menu option and select Create Role.
2. Provide a name for the admin role, here we will use nebraska_admin.
3. Click Save.
4. After the admin role is created enable composion: Go to associated roles, and add nebraska_member.

Now the member and admin roles are created, the admin role is a composite role which comprises of member role.

Adding roles scope to token

1. Click on Client Scopes > nebraska-dedicated.
2. Click on Configure a new mapper
3. Click on User Client Role
4. Set the name as roles, Select the Mapper Type as User Client Role, Token Claim Name as roles and Select Claim JSON Type as String.
5. Click Save

Attaching Roles to User

1. Click on Users menu option and click admin.
2. Go to Role Mapping tab and select nebraska_admin role and click on assign. If you want to provide only member access access select the member role.

Nebraska

• Go to the nebraska project directory and run make

• Start the database (see the section above if you need a quick setup).

• Setup OIDC provider as a public client (see provider-specific instructions below).

• Start the Nebraska backend:

  backend/bin/nebraska --debug --auth-mode oidc \
    --http-static-dir frontend/dist \
    --oidc-admin-roles nebraska_admin \
    --oidc-viewer-roles nebraska_member \
    --oidc-client-id nebraska \
    --oidc-issuer-url http://localhost:8080/realms/master
  

  Optional flags:

  • --oidc-roles-path: Custom JSON path for roles (default: “roles”)
  • --oidc-scopes: OIDC scopes (default: “openid,profile,email”)
  • --oidc-audience: Required for some providers like Auth0
  • --oidc-management-url: URL for user account management
  • --oidc-logout-url: Fallback logout URL if not in OIDC discovery

• In the browser, access http://localhost:8000

Preparing Auth0 as an OIDC provider for Nebraska

Create and configure new application

1. Click on Create Application.
2. Provide the name as nebraska, select Single Page Application (SPA).
3. Click Create
4. Click on the Settings tab.
5. Under Application URIs section:
   • Allowed Callback URLs: http://localhost:8000/auth/callback
   • Allowed Web Origins: http://localhost:8000 (for CORS)
   • Allowed Logout URLs: http://localhost:8000/
6. Under Advanced Settings > Grant Types:
   • Ensure Authorization Code is checked
   • Ensure Implicit is unchecked
7. Click on Save Changes

Create an API for audience parameter

1. Go to Applications > APIs in the Auth0 dashboard.
2. Click Create API.
3. Set a name (e.g., “Nebraska API”) and identifier (e.g., http://localhost).
   • Note: The identifier doesn’t need to be a real URL, it’s just a unique string.
4. Click Create.
5. Use this identifier as the --oidc-audience parameter when starting Nebraska.
6. Find the <your-client-id> and <your-domain> from the Auth0 dashboard: Applications > nebraska > Settings

   backend/bin/nebraska --debug --auth-mode oidc \
     --oidc-client-id <your-client-id> \
     --oidc-issuer-url https://<your-domain>.auth0.com/ \
     --oidc-audience http://localhost \
     --oidc-roles-path "http://nebraska\.io/roles" \
     --oidc-admin-roles nebraska_admin \
     --oidc-viewer-roles nebraska_member \
     --http-static-dir frontend/dist
   

Adding roles scope to token

1. Click on Actions > Library and find the Create Action menu from top right.
2. Click on Build from scratch option.
3. Provide a name for the new action.
4. Choose the Login / Post Login trigger type and the recommended runtime.
5. Paste the following snippet in Script text box.

exports.onExecutePostLogin = async (event, api) => {
  const namespace = "http://nebraska.io"; // this value is just an example

  if (event.authorization) {
    api.accessToken.setCustomClaim(
      `${namespace}/roles`,
      event.authorization.roles,
    );
    api.idToken.setCustomClaim(`${namespace}/roles`, event.authorization.roles);
  }
};

6. Click on Deploy. Now the action to add the roles to the token is setup, but then we yet have to create the trigger for it.
7. Go to Triggers under the Actions main menu.
8. Choose the post-login flow.
9. Find the newly created action on the right side (switch to the custom tab).
10. Drag & Drop the action between the Start and Complete steps in the flow.
11. Click Apply.
12. Go to User Management and add the role to your users.

Now the action that adds the roles to the token will be triggered after each login and the roles will be available in the key http://nebraska.io/roles.

Note: The oidc-roles-path argument accepts a JSONPath to fetch roles from the token, in this case set the value to "http://nebraska\.io/roles".

Preparing Dex with github connector as an OIDC provider for Nebraska

Setting up a Github App to be used as a connector for Dex

• Create a new organization in Github.

• Now you need to create an OAuth App, go to https://github.com/organizations/<your-organization>/settings/applications (Your Organization Settings > Developer Settongs > OAuth Apps) and fill the following fields:

  • Application name - just put some fancy name.
  • Homepage URL - http://localhost:8000
  • User authorization callback URL - http://localhost:5556/dex/callback

• Press Create Application button

• Next thing you’ll get is OAuth credentials at the bottom of the page of the app you just created, we will need both Client ID and Client secret

• The OAuth app should already be installed to your org.

Creating Github Teams

• Create two teams in your organization with the following names admin and viewer.

• Add the admin users to both admin and viewer team. Add the non-admin users to viewer team.

Configuring and Running Dex IDP

• Create a configuration for Dex based on the example.

example.yaml

issuer: http://localhost:5556/dex

storage:
  type: memory

web:
  http: 0.0.0.0:5556
  allowedOrigins: ["*"]

staticClients:
  - id: nebraska
    redirectURIs:
      - "http://localhost:8000/auth/callback"
    name: "nebraska"
    public: true # Public client for PKCE flow, no secret needed

connectors:
  - type: github
    id: github
    name: GitHub
    config:
      clientID: <Client ID>
      clientSecret: <Client Secret>
      redirectURI: http://localhost:5556/dex/callback
      loadAllGroups: true
      teamNameField: slug
      useLoginAsID: true

• Run Dex using docker with the example configuration.

docker run -p 5556:5556 -v ${PWD}/example.yaml:/etc/dex/example.yaml ghcr.io/dexidp/dex:v2.44.0 dex serve /etc/dex/example.yaml

Running nebraska

backend/bin/nebraska --debug --auth-mode oidc \
  --oidc-roles-path groups \
  --oidc-admin-roles admin \
  --oidc-viewer-roles viewer \
  --oidc-client-id nebraska \
  --oidc-issuer-url http://localhost:5556/dex \
  --oidc-scopes groups,openid,profile \
  --http-static-dir frontend/dist

Preparing Okta as an OIDC provider for Nebraska

Create and configure new application

1. Log in to your Okta Admin Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Applications > Applications.
3. Click Create App Integration.
4. Select OIDC - OpenID Connect and then Single-Page Application.
5. Configure the application:
   • App integration name: Nebraska
   • Grant type: Authorization Code (with PKCE automatically enabled for SPAs)
   • Sign-in redirect URIs: http://localhost:8000/auth/callback
   • Sign-out redirect URIs: http://localhost:8000
   • Trusted Origins (under Security > API):
     • Add http://localhost:8000 for CORS
6. In Assignments, assign users or groups who should have access.
   • App → Assignments → Assign > Assign to People or Assign to Groups and pick users/groups who should access the app.
7. Note your Client ID from the application’s General tab.

Configure groups/roles claims

1. Navigate to Security > API > Authorization Servers.
2. Select your authorization server (or use default).
3. Go to the Claims tab and add a new claim:
   • Name: roles or groups
   • Include in: Access Token
   • Value type: Groups
   • Filter: Select the groups you want to include
4. Use the Issuer URI from the authorization server settings.

Start Nebraska with Okta

backend/bin/nebraska --debug --auth-mode oidc \
  --oidc-client-id <your-client-id> \
  --oidc-issuer-url https://<your-domain>.okta.com/oauth2/default \
  --oidc-admin-roles nebraska_admin \
  --oidc-viewer-roles nebraska_viewer \
  --http-static-dir frontend/dist

Preparing Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) as an OIDC provider for Nebraska

Register a new application

1. Sign in to the Azure Portal .
2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory > App registrations.
3. Click New registration:
   • Name: Nebraska
   • Supported account types: Choose based on your requirements
   • Redirect URI:
     • Platform: Single-page application
     • URI: http://localhost:8000/auth/callback
4. After creation, note the Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID.

Configure the application

1. In your app registration, go to Authentication:
   • Ensure the redirect URI is set correctly
   • Under Implicit grant and hybrid flows, ensure both checkboxes are unchecked
   • Configure Logout URL: http://localhost:8000 (optional)
2. Go to API permissions:
   • Ensure Microsoft Graph > User.Read is present (default)
   • Add any group permissions if using group-based roles
3. For CORS, go to Expose an API:
   • Add your application’s URL to allowed origins if needed

Configure group claims (optional)

1. Go to Token configuration.
2. Click Add groups claim.
3. Select the appropriate group types for your setup.
4. The groups will appear in the groups claim in the token.

Start Nebraska with Azure AD

backend/bin/nebraska --debug --auth-mode oidc \
  --oidc-client-id <your-application-id> \
  --oidc-issuer-url https://login.microsoftonline.com/<your-tenant-id>/v2.0 \
  --oidc-admin-roles <admin-group-id> \
  --oidc-viewer-roles <viewer-group-id> \
  --oidc-roles-path groups \
  --http-static-dir frontend/dist

Note: Azure AD returns group IDs (GUIDs) rather than group names in the token. You’ll need to use the group IDs in your role configuration.

Deploying on Kubernetes using the Helm Chart

We maintain a Helm Chart for deploying a Nebraska instance to Kubernetes. The Helm Chart offers flexible configuration options such as:

• Deploy a single-replica PostgreSQL database together with Nebraska. We use the container image and also the Helm Chart (as a subchart) from Bitnami

• Enabling / disabling, and configuring persistence for both Nebraska and PostgreSQL (persistence is disabled by default)

• Common deployment parameters (exposing through Ingress, replica count, etc.)

• All Nebraska application configuration

For the complete list of all available customization options, please read the Helm Chart README .

To install the Helm Chart using the default configuration (noop authentication), you can execute:

$ helm repo add nebraska https://flatcar.github.io/nebraska
$ helm install my-nebraska nebraska/nebraska

You probably need to customize the installation, then use a Helm values file. Eg.:

# nebraska-values.yaml
config:
  app:
    title: Nebraska

  auth:
    mode: github
    github:
      clientID: <your clientID obtained during GitHub App registration>
      clientSecret: <your clientSecret obtained during GitHub App registration>
      sessionAuthKey: <64 random hexadecimal characters>
      sessionCryptKey: <32 random hexadecimal characters>
      webhookSecret: <random Secret used in GitHub App registration>

ingress:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: <your ingress class>
  hosts:
    - nebraska.example.com

postgresql:
  postgresqlPassword: <A secure password>
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    storageClass: <A block storage-class>
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    size: 1Gi

Then execute:

$ helm install my-nebraska nebraska/nebraska --values nebraska-values.yaml

Troubleshooting

Common OIDC Issues

• CORS errors in browser console

  • Ensure your OIDC provider has the Nebraska URL in allowed origins/CORS settings
  • For development with frontend on port 3000, add http://localhost:3000 to allowed origins

• “Invalid redirect URI” error

  • Verify the callback URL is exactly http://localhost:8000/auth/callback
  • Check for trailing slashes or protocol mismatches (http vs https)

• JWT validation failed / User has no access

  • Inspect your access token
  • Check that roles are correctly configured in your OIDC provider
  • Verify the roles path matches your token structure (use --oidc-roles-path if needed)
  • For Auth0, ensure you created an API and set the audience parameter

• Frequent re-authentication after page refresh

  • Configure longer access token expiration in your OIDC provider (1-4 hours recommended)
  • SSO session will handle re-authentication transparently if still valid
  • Go to your providers token settings (either under realm or specific client) and increase the access token lifespan from minutes to hours

• Auth0: “JWT malformed” or decode errors

  • Ensure Implicit grant is disabled in application settings
  • Verify audience parameter is set correctly
  • Check that you created an API in Auth0 and using its identifier

Legacy OIDC Configuration