dexidp/dex
OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity and OAuth 2.0 provider with pluggable connectors observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
86/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 61
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 54
- age_days: 4034
- days_rel: 183
- days_push: 9
- n_releases_24m: 8
Adoption not part of the score
11062 stars · 1974 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Dex is a federated OpenID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0 identity provider that issues signed ID tokens (JWTs) for applications. It acts as an authentication portal that proxies to upstream identity providers such as LDAP, SAML, GitHub, Google, Microsoft, and GitLab through pluggable connectors, so client apps only need to speak OIDC.
Use cases
- set up single sign-on for kubernetes dashboard and kubectl
- federate authentication across LDAP, SAML, GitHub and Google identity providers
- issue OIDC ID tokens for microservices to use as service-to-service credentials
- add a central OIDC endpoint in front of existing identity providers without changing app code
- self-host an open-source identity provider for SSO
- authenticate internal tools against Active Directory or LDAP via OpenID Connect
When to choose
- you need one OIDC layer in front of multiple upstream identity providers (LDAP, SAML, GitHub, Google, Microsoft)
- you want Kubernetes SSO for dashboards, kubectl, and internal tooling
- you want apps to write auth logic once against OIDC while Dex handles backend protocols
- you need a lightweight, CNCF-backed, production-audited identity service deployable via Helm
When to avoid
- you need a full identity management product with user enrollment, self-service password reset, and admin UI
- you want a hosted managed identity service rather than self-operated infrastructure
- your only requirement is simple username/password auth with no federation
- you need fine-grained application-level authorization policies rather than authentication and group claims
Facets
service · maturity stable
auth authorization http-server middleware security cloud-computing self-hosted self-hosted go cloud oidc oauth2 identity-provider sso federated-identity jwt ldap saml cncf single-sign-on authentication identity kubernetes devops linux docker
10 sources
- readme: https://github.com/dexidp/dex · fetched 2026-08-28 · 49e85b86b728
- homepage: https://dexidp.io · fetched 2026-08-29 · e43add2d291b
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs · fetched 2026-08-29 · 9fcafc1ee69b
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/getting-started · fetched 2026-08-29 · 0be0ff98a8fe
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/github · fetched 2026-08-29 · 0ca94d7bb115
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/google · fetched 2026-08-29 · b92f8ee005b6
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/microsoft · fetched 2026-08-29 · deadf53a4d4c
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/gitlab · fetched 2026-08-29 · 1381d8737b75
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/linkedin · fetched 2026-08-29 · 76cc71d6c6ae
- site_page: https://dexidp.io/docs/connectors/atlassian-crowd · fetched 2026-08-29 · 7e2c0d6feffb
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| dexidp/dex | main | 86 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem