Sift Stack Authentication

generated: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/set-up-api-access (HTTP 200),
  https://docs.siftstack.com/api/authenticate (HTTP 200),
  https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/connect-an-identity-provider (HTTP 200),
  https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/set-up-data-access-governance (HTTP 200);
  scheme derived from openapi/sift-stack-openapi.json.
docs: https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/set-up-api-access
name: Sift authentication
summary:
  types: [http]
  model: api-key-as-bearer
  oauth2: false
  scopes: false
  mtls: false
  openid_connect_for_api: false
schemes:
- name: BearerAuth
  type: http
  scheme: bearer
  bearerFormat: JWT
  applied: global
  sources: [openapi/sift-stack-openapi.json]
  description: >-
    A Sift API key. Despite bearerFormat: JWT the credential is a long-lived issued key, not a token
    obtained from an authorization server — there is no token endpoint and no refresh flow.
credential:
  kind: api-key
  binding: user
  lifetime: indefinite
  revocation: 'delete the key (ApiKeyService_DeleteApiKey, or Manage -> API Keys in the app)'
  retrievable_after_creation: false
  rotation_policy: none-published
  environment_scoped: true
  notes:
  - 'Keys are user-associated and inherit the permissions of the user they are attached to — there is no service-account or machine identity with its own permission set.'
  - 'The value is displayed once at creation and cannot be retrieved later; lose it and you issue a new one.'
  - 'Each environment (production, GovCloud, on-prem) requires its own key. Keys are not portable across environments.'
  - 'Keys can be created and managed programmatically via ApiKeyService as well as in the UI.'
transport:
  rest: 'authorization: Bearer <api key> HTTP header'
  grpc: 'authorization: Bearer <api key> call metadata'
  note: One credential, one header name, both transports — a genuinely simple story for an agent.
authorization:
  model: rbac-plus-policy
  roles_api: RoleService
  policies_api: PolicyService
  groups_api: UserGroupService
  attributes_api: [PrincipalAttributeService, ResourceAttributeService]
  docs: https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/set-up-data-access-governance
  note: >-
    Authorization is NOT expressed in the credential. There are no scopes on the token, so an agent cannot
    reduce its own blast radius by requesting a narrower credential — the only lever is which user the key is
    attached to. Fine-grained control lives server-side in roles, data-access policies and principal/resource
    attributes. This is why the bundled MCP integration implements its own client-side write gate
    (--read-only by default, --allow-destructive to enable mutating tools) rather than relying on token scope.
human_sso:
  supported: true
  docs: https://docs.siftstack.com/documentation/manage/connect-an-identity-provider
  note: Identity-provider connection for human console access; unrelated to API credentials.
oauth_metadata_probes:
- {url: 'https://docs.siftstack.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server', status: 404}
- {url: 'https://docs.siftstack.com/.well-known/openid-configuration', status: 404}
- {url: 'https://www.siftstack.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server', status: 404}
- {url: 'https://api.siftstack.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server', status: 401}
- {url: 'https://api.siftstack.com/.well-known/openid-configuration', status: 401}
scopes_artifact: 'not applicable — no OAuth flow, so scopes/ is deliberately not emitted'
gaps:
- 'No key rotation policy, no expiry, no last-used telemetry documented.'
- 'No scoped or least-privilege credential: a key is as powerful as its user.'
- 'No mTLS option documented for the SaaS endpoints despite an ITAR/CUI customer base.'