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SSO and directory
Corporate sign-in with OpenID Connect and Active Directory access control — what it gives a workspace and how it works.
Calab can let employees into a workspace through your organization's identity provider (IdP) and check their access against Active Directory. This chapter is for workspace owners who set up sign-in and for operators who run their own Calab installation.
What's included
| Capability | What it does | Protocol |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate sign-in (SSO) | Employees sign in to the workspace through your IdP; in required mode, that is the only way in | OpenID Connect, Authorization Code + PKCE S256 |
| Directory (AD) | Every 5 minutes, checks who your organization still allows in; disabled and deleted accounts lose access | LDAPS (read-only) |
| Recovery | A set of one-time codes so the owner can repair the policy if the IdP breaks | — |
Supported IdPs: any OpenID Connect provider (generic OIDC), Microsoft Entra ID and AD FS 2019+. SAML is not supported — see limitations.
The workspace is the trust boundary
Everything about corporate sign-in belongs to one workspace: the IdP connection, the policy, the directory and each employee's link. Your IdP's answer opens your workspace and nothing else:
- a session obtained through SSO works only in that workspace — no direct messages, personal notes, other workspaces or password management;
- accounts are never merged by email: a corporate identity is linked to a Calab account only explicitly, after that account's password is confirmed;
- data from the IdP (claims) never makes anyone an owner, admin or superadmin.
This way an administrator of somebody else's IdP cannot reach other people's data by presenting a matching email address.
Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| IdP | Your organization's identity provider: Entra ID, AD FS, Keycloak, Okta, etc. |
| SSO connection | The IdP settings in a workspace: issuer, Client ID, secret. One active connection per workspace |
| External identity | The pair “connection + sub from the ID token”, explicitly linked to a Calab account |
| Local account | A regular Calab account with a password. Its session sees all of the person's workspaces |
| Corporate session | A session obtained by signing in with SSO. Limited to one workspace |
| SSO assurance | A mark that “this session recently passed corporate sign-in”. Valid for 1 hour |
| Password confirmation | A fresh entry of the local account password. Valid for 5 minutes for administration |
| Recovery kit | 10 one-time codes for repairing the policy, valid for 365 days |
| Directory | A read-only LDAPS connection to Active Directory used to check employee status |
Requirements
- Plan. Business in the cloud or Enterprise on your own installation. On Free and Team, or with an expired plan, the tab is locked.
- Server. The installation's operator has set the
IDENTITY_*variables (see for operators). If not, settings show “Corporate sign-in and OAuth are not configured on this server”. - Who configures it. Only the workspace owner, signed in to their local account. Before each change Calab asks to confirm the password (a sign-in from the last 5 minutes).
Where to find it
Workspace settings → “SSO settings”. The tab has the cards “Corporate sign-in” (your status), “SSO connection”, “Test and activate”, “Sign-in policy”, “Account recovery” and “Active Directory”.
Rollout order
- Register an application in your IdP and create the “SSO connection” — generic, Entra or AD FS.
- Link your own corporate identity, “Test sign-in in browser”, then “Activate tested connection”.
- Set the policy to “Optional” and let employees link their identities — see modes.
- If needed, connect the directory.
- Generate and store a recovery kit.
- Switch the policy to “Required SSO”.
Next steps
- Sign-in modes — what changes for members, guests and bots.
- Reauthentication — which confirmations are required and when.
- Troubleshooting — common errors and how to fix them.