Configure your authentication flows

With Kinde, you can reconfigure authentication flows without redeploying your application.

Kinde hosts the sign-up and sign-in journey. You change how that journey works with settings, page design, or custom code that runs in Kinde — not by shipping a new build of your app every time.

This page maps the main ways to configure your authentication flows and where to go next.

Ways to configure authentication flows

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Approach	What you change	Typical use
Custom configurations	Dashboard settings for the auth experience	Seamless sign-up, name fields, redirects, invitation-only access
Custom pages	Your own sign-in screens or Kinde-hosted page design	Brand the start of the flow, or fully style hosted pages
Workflows	Custom code at auth and token triggers	Token claims, external checks, logic Kinde doesn’t support out of the box

You can combine these. For example, use dashboard settings for the registration experience, custom UI for branding, and a workflow to enrich tokens after sign-in.

Custom configurations

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Use application and environment settings in Kinde to shape the authentication flow without writing code.

Common options include:

• Unified sign-up and sign-in (seamless registration)
• Asking for first and last name on sign-up
• Change authentication methods per application (email, social, enterprise, etc.)
• Redirects after auth
• Invitation-only access (disable self sign-up)
• Pre-filling identity on the sign-in screen

Check out Manage the authentication experience.

Custom pages

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Control what users see at the start of, or throughout the hosted authentication flow.

• Your own branding — Set global brand defaults (logo, favicon, colors, etc.) for your business or set branding per organization
• Your own sign-up and sign-in screens — Host the first screen in your product, then hand off to Kinde for verification and MFA. See Custom sign-up and sign-in pages.
• Custom UI on Kinde-hosted pages — Bring your own HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to Kinde’s hosted pages (requires a custom domain). See Customize designs with code.

These change the presentation of the flow. Secure verification steps still run in Kinde.

Brand defaults and organization branding update in Kinde immediately, with no application redeploy. Custom UI on Kinde-hosted pages also applies without redeploying your app — you sync the design to Kinde. Your own sign-up and sign-in screens, hosted in your product, require deploying that product.

Workflows

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Workflows run your TypeScript or JavaScript in Kinde when specific events fire — for example after authentication, before MFA, or when tokens are generated.

Use a workflow when you need to:

• Customize tokens (access or ID token claims) beyond built-in options
• Call an external system during the auth or token flow (e.g., custom spam filter, fraud detection, etc.)
• Add validation or business logic at a supported trigger (e.g., custom password validation, etc.)

Workflow code lives in your repo and syncs to Kinde. Updating a workflow does not require redeploying your application; you sync and deploy the workflow in Kinde.

Workflows cannot bypass Kinde’s built-in verification (such as email OTP). Those steps always run as part of the auth flow.

Choose an approach

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• Change behavior with toggles and settings → Custom configurations
• Change how the flow looks or where it starts → Set brand defaults, Custom pages or custom UI
• Run custom logic during auth or token generation → Workflows

For available sign-in methods (email, social, enterprise, and more), see About Kinde authentication and Ways to authenticate.