Yale University Identity Federation Metadata

# generated: '2026-08-19'
# method: probed
# source: live probes of https://auth.yale.edu/idp/shibboleth (200, application/xml, 6511 bytes)
#   and the InCommon metadata query service entry for the same entityID (200,
#   application/samlmetadata+xml, 9302 bytes), both 2026-08-19
# x-operator: institution
openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Yale University Identity Federation Metadata
  description: >-
    Machine-readable SAML 2.0 identity-federation surface operated by Yale University. The
    Shibboleth Identity Provider at https://auth.yale.edu publishes a signed SAML 2.0
    EntityDescriptor for entityID https://auth.yale.edu/idp/shibboleth, declaring
    OrganizationName "Yale University", shibmd:Scope "yale.edu", and SingleSignOnService
    endpoints for the Shibboleth 1.0, SAML 1.1 and SAML 2.0 protocols (HTTP-Redirect, HTTP-POST,
    HTTP-POST-SimpleSign and SOAP bindings).

    The same entity is registered in the InCommon federation (registrationAuthority
    https://incommon.org) and is retrievable from InCommon's per-entity metadata query service,
    which makes it reachable through eduGAIN interfederation as well. The host resolves inside
    Yale's own AWS identity estate (shibboleth-idp-prd.inbound.iam.aws.yale.edu), so this surface
    is institution-operated by construction — no vendor is running it.

    This is not a REST API and it was never designed as one. It is described here because it is a
    genuine, verified, machine-readable, institution-operated surface, and because federated
    identity metadata is the most consistently overlooked programmable artifact a university
    publishes.
  version: '2.0'
  contact:
    name: Yale University ITS — Identity and Access Management
    url: https://its.yale.edu/
servers:
- url: https://auth.yale.edu
  description: Yale Shibboleth Identity Provider (institution-operated)
externalDocs:
  description: SAML V2.0 Metadata specification
  url: https://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-metadata-2.0-os.pdf
tags:
- name: Federation
  description: SAML 2.0 entity metadata
paths:
  /idp/shibboleth:
    get:
      tags: [Federation]
      operationId: getIdpMetadata
      summary: Retrieve Yale's SAML 2.0 identity provider metadata
      description: >-
        Returns the signed SAML 2.0 EntityDescriptor for Yale University's Shibboleth Identity
        Provider, including its signing and encryption key descriptors, supported protocols,
        SingleSignOnService and ArtifactResolutionService endpoints, the shibmd:Scope asserted for
        the yale.edu namespace, and the Organization and ContactPerson blocks. Verified 200 with
        content-type application/xml on 2026-08-19.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: SAML 2.0 EntityDescriptor document.
          content:
            application/xml:
              schema:
                type: string
                format: xml
                description: >-
                  urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata EntityDescriptor with entityID
                  https://auth.yale.edu/idp/shibboleth.