What Is Seamless Auth?

Seamless Auth

Seamless Auth is a passwordless authentication ecosystem designed to run as part of your own application infrastructure.

It combines a self-hostable auth server, official SDKs, a CLI for scaffolding a working stack, and an operator dashboard for managing users, sessions, security, and system configuration.

The goal is to give you modern authentication while keeping the auth engine, session boundary, and user experience inside your application stack.

Key Characteristics

Exclusively Passwordless

Authentication is based on cryptographic verification, not shared secrets.
Supports passkeys, magic links, email/phone OTP, TOTP MFA, and optional OAuth login.

Loosely Coupled

The auth engine runs as its own service inside your stack.
SDKs are thin integration layers, not hidden platforms.
Frontend auth flows stay inside your application.
The admin dashboard is a separate app, not a magical control plane.

Server-Side Session Validation

Sessions are issued and validated using secure, HTTP-only cookies.
Defense-in-depth approach to authentication.
Sessions are tracked per device and per browser.

Explicit Authorization

Roles and access control are defined and enforced in your own application code.
No hidden authorization layers or assumptions.

Consistent Environments

The same core model works locally, in staging, and in production.
Local development is designed to stay close to deployment reality.
The CLI can scaffold a production-shaped local stack quickly.

The Ecosystem

Seamless Auth is made up of a few focused projects.

Piece	Role
`seamless-cli`	Scaffolds a full local stack
`seamless-auth-api`	Runs the passwordless auth engine
`@seamless-auth/core`	Framework-agnostic server auth primitives
`@seamless-auth/express`	Official Express backend integration
`@seamless-auth/react`	React auth provider and built-in auth routes
`seamless-auth-admin-dashboard`	Operator UI for users, sessions, events, security, and config
`@seamless-auth/types`	Shared domain and API types

If you want the fuller package map, continue to Ecosystem Overview.

Core Idea

Seamless Auth treats authentication as infrastructure:

CLI -> Local stack
SDKs -> App integration
Auth API -> Passwordless auth engine
Admin Dashboard -> Operator workflows

What You Will Build

By the end of this guide, you will have:

A working local stack
Passwordless authentication
Session management with device-level control
A clearer mental model of the ecosystem
Enough context to choose the right package for your next step
A path to customize auth UI and protect app routes when you leave the starter

Next Step

→ Continue to Quickstart