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Integrate with Node-RED

Support level: Community

What is Node-RED​

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

-- https://nodered.org/

caution

This requires modification of the Node-RED settings.js and installing additional Passport-js packages, see Securing Node-RED documentation for further details.

Preparation​

The following placeholders are used in this guide:

  • authentik.company is the FQDN of authentik.
  • nodred.company is the FQDN of Node-RED.
note

This documentation lists only the settings that you need to change from their default values. Be aware that any changes other than those explicitly mentioned in this guide could cause issues accessing your application.

authentik configuration​

To support the integration of Node-RED with authentik, you need to create an application/provider pair in authentik.

Create an application and provider in authentik​

  1. Log in to authentik as an admin, and open the authentik Admin interface.
  2. Navigate to Applications > Applications and click Create with Provider to create an application and provider pair. (Alternatively you can first create a provider separately, then create the application and connect it with the provider.)
  • Application: provide a descriptive name, an optional group for the type of application, the policy engine mode, and optional UI settings.
  • Choose a Provider type: select OAuth2/OpenID Connect as the provider type.
  • Configure the Provider: provide a name (or accept the auto-provided name), the authorization flow to use for this provider, and the following required configurations.
    • Note the Client ID,Client Secret, and slug values because they will be required later.
    • Set a Strict redirect URI to https://nodered.company/auth/strategy/callback/.
    • Select any available signing key.
  • Configure Bindings (optional): you can create a binding (policy, group, or user) to manage the listing and access to applications on a user's My applications page.
  1. Click Submit to save the new application and provider.

Note-RED configuration​

Step 1​

note

Group based permissions are not implemented in the below example

Use npm to install passport-openidconnect

Navigate to the node-red node_modules directory, this is dependent on your chosen install method. In the official Node-RED docker container the node_modules directory is located in the data volume data/node_modules/. Alternatively enter the docker container docker exec -it nodered bash and cd /data/node_modules to utilise npm within the docker container.

Run the command npm install passport-openidconnect

Step 2​

Edit the node-red settings.js file /data/settings.js to use the external authentication source via passport-openidconnect.

adminAuth: {
type:"strategy",
strategy: {
        name: "openidconnect",
        label: 'Sign in with authentik',
        icon:"fa-cloud",
        strategy: require("passport-openidconnect").Strategy,
        options: {
                issuer: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/<application-slug>/',
                authorizationURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/authorize/',
                tokenURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/token/',
                userInfoURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/userinfo/',
                clientID: '<Client ID (Key): Step 2>',
                clientSecret: '<Client Secret: Step 2>',
                callbackURL: 'https://nodered.company/auth/strategy/callback/',
                scope: ['email', 'profile', 'openid'],
                proxy: true,
        verify: function(issuer, profile, done) {
                done(null, profile)
        }
      }
    },
    users: function(user) {
        return Promise.resolve({ username: user, permissions: "*" });
    }
},