Skip to main content

Set up a JWT for Testing

Step 1: Install the jwt-cli​

Install the jwt-cli, which allows you to generate tokens from the command line. You can follow their list of installation instructions found here.

Step 2: Generate a random string​

Generate a random string that we'll use as the JWT secret key:

In your terminal, run the following command
openssl rand -hex 16

Copy the value returned by the terminal.

Creating a random string

If you don't want to use openssl, you can use any other random string generators. The only requirement is that the string must be at least 32 characters.

Step 3: Set up your configurations​

Set up an AuthConfig object in your project which uses this secret key.

rely-auth/auth.yaml
version: v1
kind: RelyAuth
definition:
  modes:
    - mode: jwt
      tokenLocation:
        in: header
        name: Auth-Token
      claimsConfig:
        namespace:
          location: '"claims.jwt.hasura.io"'
          claimsFormat: Json
      key:
        algorithm: HS256
        key:
          env: JWT_SECRET_KEY

Step 4: Start the service​

Start a RelyAuth service with Docker Compose.

compose.yaml
services:
  auth-hook:
    image: ghcr.io/relychan/rely-auth:latest
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    volumes:
      - ./rely-auth:/etc/rely-auth
    environment:
      JWT_SECRET_KEY: "<insert-the-key-generated-in-previous-step>"
From the root of your project, run:
docker compose up -d

Step 5: Generate a JWT​

For testing, you can use the jwt-cli to encode and generate a new token with the different claims written to match your testing needs.

Run the following with your own values:
jwt encode --secret="<secret-key>" '{"exp": 1739905122,"iat": 1708369122,"claims.jwt.hasura.io":{"x-hasura-default-role": "admin","x-hasura-allowed-roles":["admin"]}}'

In the example above, we're setting the following values:

  • The issued (iat) time as Feb. 19 2024, at 18:58:42 as a Unix epoch timestamp.
  • The expiration (exp) time as Feb. 18, 2025 at 18:58:42.
  • The default role as admin.
  • The allowed roles as admin.

For more information about the claims Hasura expects, check out this page.

Step 6: Test your AuthConfig​

Use an HTTP client tool, for example, cURL to send a request:

Authenticate request with cURL:
curl http://localhost:8080/auth/ddn -H 'Auth-Token: <jwt-token>'