Kinde Authentication for InsForge

Overview

Kinde is an authentication and user management platform for modern SaaS applications. It supports social logins, email/SMS, passwordless, and MFA out of the box. This guide shows how to integrate Kinde with InsForge by signing a separate JWT server-side, since Kinde does not support custom JWT signing keys.

• Live Demo — A sample app using Kinde authentication with InsForge
• Source Code — GitHub repository for the sample app

Prerequisites

• An InsForge project (self-hosted or cloud)
• A Kinde account and application

Step 1: Create a Kinde Application

1. Log in to your Kinde Dashboard
2. Select Add application
3. Name your application and choose Back-end web as the type
4. Select Next.js from the SDK list
5. Configure callback URLs:
   • Allowed callback URL: http://localhost:3000/api/auth/kinde_callback
   • Allowed logout redirect URL: http://localhost:3000
6. Enable desired authentication methods (Email, Google, etc.) under Authentication
7. Under App Keys, note down the Domain, Client ID, and Client Secret

Step 2: Set Up Your InsForge Project

Create a new project or link an existing one:

# Create a new project
npx @insforge/cli create

# Or link an existing project
npx @insforge/cli link --project-id <your-project-id>

Then get your project credentials:

# Get the JWT Secret
npx @insforge/cli secrets get JWT_SECRET

Note down the URL and Anon Key from the InsForge dashboard. You'll use the JWT Secret from the CLI output in a later step to sign tokens for InsForge.

Step 3: Set Up Your Application

Install the required dependencies:

npm install @kinde-oss/kinde-auth-nextjs @insforge/sdk jsonwebtoken
npm install --save-dev @types/jsonwebtoken

Add environment variables to .env.local:

# Kinde
KINDE_CLIENT_ID='YOUR_KINDE_CLIENT_ID'
KINDE_CLIENT_SECRET='YOUR_KINDE_CLIENT_SECRET'
KINDE_ISSUER_URL='https://YOUR_DOMAIN.kinde.com'
KINDE_SITE_URL='http://localhost:3000'
KINDE_POST_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL='http://localhost:3000'
KINDE_POST_LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL='http://localhost:3000'

# InsForge
NEXT_PUBLIC_INSFORGE_URL='YOUR_INSFORGE_URL'
NEXT_PUBLIC_INSFORGE_ANON_KEY='YOUR_INSFORGE_ANON_KEY'
INSFORGE_JWT_SECRET='YOUR_INSFORGE_JWT_SECRET'

Create the Kinde auth API route at app/api/auth/[kindeAuth]/route.js:

import { handleAuth } from "@kinde-oss/kinde-auth-nextjs/server";

export const GET = handleAuth();

Step 4: Set Up InsForge Integration

Ask your agent to complete the following steps:

1. Create the InsForge client utility

Create the InsForge client utility that signs a JWT using the Kinde user session.

This creates a server-side utility (lib/insforge.ts) that gets the Kinde user via getKindeServerSession(), signs a JWT with the InsForge secret, and passes it as edgeFunctionToken.

2. Create the database schema

Create a todos table with RLS. Columns: id, user_id, title, is_complete, created_at. Users should only be able to access their own todos.

This creates the requesting_user_id() helper function (since Kinde user IDs are strings, not UUIDs) and a todos table with Row Level Security policies.

3. Build the todo list page

Build a todo list page with full CRUD — create, read, update, and delete todos.

This creates a page that uses the InsForge client to manage todos. RLS ensures users only see their own data.

Step 5: Run Your Application

# Install dependencies if you haven't already
npm install

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 and sign up with a new user through Kinde.

Note: Since authentication is handled entirely by Kinde, you will not see any users in the InsForge dashboard under Auth > Users. User records are managed in the Kinde Dashboard — check Users there to confirm the sign-up was successful.