Keycloak JWT Authentication Deployment Guide

Complete deployment guide for the Keycloak-centric authentication architecture with service principals, API keys, identity federation, and SCIM pro…

Complete deployment guide for the Keycloak-centric authentication architecture with service principals, API keys, identity federation, and SCIM provisioning.

Architecture Overview

External IdPs (LDAP, SAML, OIDC) → Keycloak (Authoritative)
  → Kong Gateway (JWT Validation) → MCP Server → OpenFGA

Key Features:

• Single source of truth (Keycloak)
• JWT standardization (all auth → JWT)
• Service principals (long-lived credentials)
• API key management (exchange for JWT)
• Identity federation (LDAP, SAML, OIDC)
• SCIM 2.0 provisioning
• OpenFGA permission inheritance

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster (1.24+)
• Helm 3.x
• kubectl configured
• PostgreSQL (for Keycloak)
• Redis (for sessions)
• OpenFGA deployed

Deployment Checklist

Phase 1: Keycloak Setup (Week 1)

• 1.1 Deploy Keycloak

  kubectl apply -f deployments/base/keycloak-deployment.yaml
  kubectl apply -f deployments/base/keycloak-service.yaml
  

• 1.2 Initialize Realm

  python scripts/setup/setup_keycloak.py
  

  See setup_keycloak.py for details.

• 1.3 Enable Service Accounts

  • Edit client configuration
  • Set serviceAccountsEnabled: true
  • Verify client credentials flow

• 1.4 Configure Token Lifetimes

  Access Token: 900s (15 min)
  Refresh Token: 1800s (30 min)
  Service Account Refresh: 2592000s (30 days)
  

Phase 2: OpenFGA Update (Week 1)

• 2.1 Deploy New Authorization Model
  
  # Model includes service_principal type with acts_as relation
  python scripts/setup/setup_openfga.py
  
• 2.2 Verify Model
  openfga-cli model list
  openfga-cli model get --model-id <MODEL_ID>
  
• 2.3 Test Permission Inheritance
  # Create test service principal with acts_as relationship
  # Verify permission check works
  

Phase 3: Kong Configuration (Week 2)

• 3.1 Extract Keycloak Public Key

  curl http://keycloak:8080/realms/langgraph-agent/protocol/openid-connect/certs \
    | jq '.keys[0]'
  
  # Convert to PEM (or run update_kong_jwks.py once)
  python scripts/update_kong_jwks.py
  

  See update_kong_jwks.py for details.

• 3.2 Update Kong JWT Plugin

  kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-plugins.yaml
  kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-consumers.yaml
  

• 3.3 Deploy JWKS Updater CronJob

  kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-jwks-updater-cronjob.yaml
  
  # Verify CronJob is scheduled
  kubectl get cronjobs -n mcp-server-langgraph
  

• 3.4 Deploy Kong Custom Plugin (Optional)

  # If using API key→JWT exchange
  kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-apikey-jwt-plugin.yaml
  

• 3.5 Configure Hybrid Routes

  kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-hybrid-ingress.yaml
  

Phase 4: MCP Server Deployment (Week 2)

• 4.1 Update Configuration
  # Update .env or ConfigMap
  AUTH_PROVIDER=keycloak
  ENABLE_SERVICE_PRINCIPALS=true
  API_KEY_ENABLED=true
  
• 4.2 Deploy Updated Application
  kubectl apply -f deployments/base/
  kubectl rollout status deployment/mcp-server-langgraph
  
• 4.3 Verify New API Endpoints
  curl https://api.example.com/api/v1/service-principals
  curl https://api.example.com/api/v1/api-keys
  curl https://api.example.com/scim/v2/Users
  

Phase 5: Identity Federation (Week 3) - Optional

• 5.1 Configure LDAP (if needed)

  export LDAP_CONNECTION_URL='ldap://ad.example.com:389'
  export LDAP_BIND_DN='CN=svc_keycloak,OU=Service Accounts,DC=example,DC=com'
  export LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD='password'
  export LDAP_USERS_DN='OU=Users,DC=example,DC=com'
  
  python scripts/setup/setup_ldap_federation.py
  

  See setup_ldap_federation.py for details.

• 5.2 Configure SAML (if needed)

  export SAML_ALIAS='adfs'
  export SAML_SSO_URL='https://adfs.example.com/adfs/ls/'
  
  python scripts/setup/setup_saml_idp.py
  

  See setup_saml_idp.py for details.

• 5.3 Configure OIDC (if needed)

  export GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID='...'
  export GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET='...'
  
  python scripts/setup/setup_oidc_idp.py --provider google
  

  See setup_oidc_idp.py for details.

• 5.4 Test Federated Login

  • Login with LDAP user
  • Verify JWT issuance
  • Check OpenFGA role sync

Phase 6: Testing (Week 3)

• 6.1 Run Integration Tests

  pytest tests/integration/test_service_principal_jwt.py
  pytest tests/integration/test_kong_jwt_validation.py
  pytest tests/test_permission_inheritance.py
  

• 6.2 Performance Testing

  # Load test with 1000 concurrent JWT validations
  k6 run tests/load/jwt_validation.js
  

• 6.3 Security Audit

  • Token tampering test
  • Expired token rejection
  • Permission escalation attempts
  • API key brute force protection

Phase 7: Production Rollout (Week 4)

• 7.1 Staging Deployment

  • Deploy to staging environment
  • Run smoke tests
  • Monitor for 48 hours

• 7.2 Create Service Principals

  • Migrate batch jobs to service principals
  • Create API keys for integrations
  • Document credentials securely

• 7.3 Client Migration

  • Update client SDKs
  • Implement token refresh logic
  • Test end-to-end flows

• 7.4 Production Deployment

  • Blue-green deployment
  • Monitor authentication metrics
  • Gradual traffic shift (10% → 50% → 100%)

• 7.5 Cleanup

  • Remove old authentication mechanisms
  • Clean up unused Kong consumers
  • Archive legacy configuration

Configuration Reference

Environment Variables

## Keycloak (Authoritative Identity)
AUTH_PROVIDER=keycloak
KEYCLOAK_SERVER_URL=https://keycloak.example.com
KEYCLOAK_REALM=langgraph-agent
KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_ID=langgraph-client
KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_SECRET=<from-secrets-manager>

## Service Principals
ENABLE_SERVICE_PRINCIPALS=true
SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_DEFAULT_TTL=2592000  # 30 days
SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_REFRESH_TOKEN_LIFESPAN=2592000
SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_INHERIT_PERMISSIONS=true

## API Keys
API_KEY_ENABLED=true
API_KEY_STORAGE=keycloak
API_KEY_MAX_PER_USER=5
API_KEY_EXCHANGE_CACHE_TTL=300

## Identity Federation
KEYCLOAK_LDAP_ENABLED=true
KEYCLOAK_SAML_ENABLED=true
KEYCLOAK_OIDC_ENABLED=true

## SCIM 2.0
SCIM_ENABLED=true
SCIM_AUTO_SYNC_TO_OPENFGA=true

## Kong
KONG_ADMIN_URL=http://kong-admin:8001
KONG_JWKS_UPDATE_ENABLED=true

## OpenFGA
OPENFGA_API_URL=http://openfga:8080
OPENFGA_STORE_ID=<store-id>
OPENFGA_MODEL_ID=<model-id>

## Redis (for sessions and checkpoints)
REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0
SESSION_BACKEND=redis
SESSION_TTL_SECONDS=86400

Kubernetes Resources

## Keycloak
kubectl apply -f deployments/base/keycloak-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/base/keycloak-service.yaml

## Kong Plugins
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-plugins.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-consumers.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-hybrid-ingress.yaml

## JWKS Updater
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-jwks-updater-cronjob.yaml

## MCP Server
kubectl apply -f deployments/base/deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployments/base/service.yaml

Monitoring

Key Metrics

## Authentication rate
rate(http_requests_total{endpoint="/auth/login"}[5m])

## JWT validation latency (Kong)
histogram_quantile(0.95, kong_latency_ms_bucket{route="api-route"})

## Service principal usage
count(service_principal_authentications_total) by (service_id)

## API key validations
rate(api_key_validations_total[5m])

## SCIM provisioning rate
rate(scim_operations_total{operation="create"}[5m])

## OpenFGA permission checks
rate(openfga_check_requests_total[5m])

Health Checks

## Keycloak
curl http://keycloak:8080/health/ready

## Kong
curl http://kong:8001/status

## MCP Server
curl http://mcp-server:80/health

## OpenFGA
curl http://openfga:8080/healthz

Logs

## View Keycloak logs
kubectl logs -n mcp-server-langgraph deployment/keycloak --tail=100

## View Kong logs
kubectl logs -n kong deployment/kong-gateway --tail=100

## View MCP Server logs
kubectl logs -n mcp-server-langgraph deployment/mcp-server-langgraph --tail=100

## View JWKS updater logs
kubectl logs -n mcp-server-langgraph job/kong-jwks-updater-<timestamp>

Security Considerations

Secrets Management

Never commit secrets to git. Use one of:

1. Kubernetes Secrets
   kubectl create secret generic keycloak-creds \
     --from-literal=client-secret=<secret>
   
2. External Secrets Operator
   apiVersion: external-secrets.io/v1beta1
   kind: ExternalSecret
   metadata:
     name: keycloak-secrets
   spec:
     secretStoreRef:
       name: vault
     data:
     - secretKey: client-secret
       remoteRef:
         key: keycloak/client-secret
   
3. Infisical (Already integrated)
   INFISICAL_CLIENT_ID=<id>
   INFISICAL_CLIENT_SECRET=<secret>
   

Network Policies

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: mcp-server-network-policy
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: mcp-server-langgraph
  policyTypes:
  - Ingress
  - Egress
  ingress:
  - from:
    - namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          name: kong
    ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
  egress:
  - to:
    - namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          name: mcp-server-langgraph
    ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 8080  # Keycloak
  - to:
    - namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          name: openfga
    ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 8080  # OpenFGA

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Keycloak Unavailable

Symptom: 503 Service Unavailable

Solutions:

• Check Keycloak pod status: kubectl get pods -l app=keycloak
• Check PostgreSQL connectivity
• Verify resource limits (CPU/memory)
• Check logs for errors

JWT Validation Fails at Kong

Symptom: 401 Unauthorized from Kong

Solutions:

• Verify JWKS is up-to-date: Check CronJob logs
• Run manual update: kubectl create job --from=cronjob/kong-jwks-updater manual-update
• Verify issuer matches: Token iss claim must match Kong configuration
• Check public key in Kong consumer

Service Principal Authentication Fails

Symptom: 401 when using client credentials

Solutions:

• Verify service principal exists in Keycloak
• Check client_id and client_secret
• Ensure serviceAccountsEnabled=true
• Verify Keycloak token endpoint URL

API Key Not Working

Symptom: 401 Invalid or expired API key

Solutions:

• Verify key not expired: Check expires_at
• Check user is enabled in Keycloak
• Clear Kong cache if recently created
• Verify Kong plugin is deployed

Permission Denied (OpenFGA)

Symptom: 403 Forbidden

Solutions:

• Check OpenFGA tuples exist
• Verify acts_as relationship for service principals
• Check role mapping configuration
• Test with openfga-cli: openfga-cli check

Rollback Plan

If issues arise, rollback steps:

1. Revert to Previous Auth

## Update ConfigMap
kubectl edit configmap mcp-server-config
## Set: AUTH_PROVIDER=inmemory

## Restart pods
kubectl rollout restart deployment/mcp-server-langgraph

2. Revert Kong Configuration

## Reapply old Kong plugins
kubectl apply -f deployments/kubernetes/kong/kong-plugins-backup.yaml

3. Disable New Features

## Update .env
ENABLE_SERVICE_PRINCIPALS=false
API_KEY_ENABLED=false
SCIM_ENABLED=false

Performance Tuning

Keycloak

## Increase replicas
spec:
  replicas: 3

## Resource limits
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: "2"
    memory: "2Gi"
  requests:
    cpu: "1"
    memory: "1Gi"

## Enable caching
env:
- name: KC_CACHE
  value: "ispn"
- name: KC_CACHE_STACK
  value: "kubernetes"

Kong

## Increase worker processes
env:
- name: KONG_NGINX_WORKER_PROCESSES
  value: "4"

## Enable cache
- name: KONG_MEM_CACHE_SIZE
  value: "256m"

OpenFGA

## Tune check cache
--check-query-cache-enabled=true
--check-query-cache-ttl=10s

Migration from Old Auth

Step 1: Dual Authentication (Week 1)

Run both old and new auth in parallel:

## Support both inmemory and keycloak
if token.startswith("old_"):
    # Validate with old system
else:
    # Validate with Keycloak

Step 2: Client Migration (Week 2-3)

Gradually migrate clients:

• Week 2: 25% of clients
• Week 3: 75% of clients
• Week 4: 100% of clients

Step 3: Sunset Old Auth (Week 4)

Remove old authentication system:

## Remove old providers
## Update AUTH_PROVIDER=keycloak (no fallback)

Validation

End-to-End Test

#!/bin/bash
set -e

echo "=== End-to-End Authentication Test ==="

## 1. User Login
echo "1. Testing user login..."
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/auth/login \
  -d '{"username":"alice","password":"alice123"}' \
  | jq -r '.access_token')

## 2. Service Principal
echo "2. Creating service principal..."
SP_RESP=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/service-principals \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name":"Test SP","description":"Test","authentication_mode":"client_credentials"}')

SP_ID=$(echo $SP_RESP | jq -r '.service_id')
SP_SECRET=$(echo $SP_RESP | jq -r '.client_secret')

## 3. Service Principal Auth
echo "3. Testing service principal authentication..."
SP_TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST http://keycloak:8080/realms/langgraph-agent/protocol/openid-connect/token \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$SP_ID&client_secret=$SP_SECRET" \
  | jq -r '.access_token')

## 4. API Key
echo "4. Creating API key..."
API_KEY_RESP=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/api-keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name":"Test Key"}')

API_KEY=$(echo $API_KEY_RESP | jq -r '.api_key')

## 5. Test API Key Usage
echo "5. Testing API key..."
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/message \
  -H "apikey: $API_KEY" \
  -d '{"query":"test"}' | jq .

echo "=== All tests passed! ==="

References

Architecture Decision Records

• ADR-0031: Keycloak as Authoritative Identity
• ADR-0032: JWT Standardization
• ADR-0033: Service Principal Design
• ADR-0034: API Key to JWT Exchange
• ADR-0035: Kong JWT Validation
• ADR-0036: Hybrid Session Model
• ADR-0037: Identity Federation
• ADR-0038: SCIM Implementation
• ADR-0039: OpenFGA Permission Inheritance

User Guides

• Service Principals Guide
• API Key Management
• Identity Federation Quick Start
• SCIM Provisioning

Scripts

• setup_keycloak.py
• setup_ldap_federation.py
• setup_saml_idp.py
• setup_oidc_idp.py
• update_kong_jwks.py

Configuration Files

• .env.example
• config/ldap_mappers.yaml
• config/oidc_providers.yaml
• config/role_mappings.yaml