amazon-bedrock-agentcore-samples/02-use-cases/AWS-operations-agent/okta-auth/OKTA-OPENID-PKCE-SETUP.md

Okta OpenID Connect PKCE Setup Guide

Complete guide for setting up Okta OAuth2 authentication with the AWS Support Agent AgentCore system.

Overview

This guide configures Okta OAuth2 authentication for the AgentCore system, supporting both user authentication (PKCE flow) and machine-to-machine authentication (client credentials flow).

Prerequisites

• Okta Developer Account (free at developer.okta.com)
• AWS Account with Bedrock AgentCore access
• nginx installed locally (for testing)
• Python 3.11+ for running the system

Okta Application Setup

OKTA Documentation for PKCE APP Setup:

https://developer.okta.com/blog/2019/08/22/okta-authjs-pkce

https://developer.okta.com/docs/guides/implement-grant-type/authcodepkce/main/

1. Create OIDC Application

1. Log in to Okta Developer Console
2. Navigate to: Applications → Applications → Create App Integration
3. Select: OIDC - OpenID Connect → Single-Page Application (SPA)
4. Configure Application:

   App name: aws-support-agent-client
   Grant types: ✅ Authorization Code, ✅ Refresh Token
   Sign-in redirect URIs: 
     - http://localhost:8080/callback
     - http://localhost:8080/okta-auth/
     - http://localhost:8080/okta-auth/iframe-oauth-flow.html
   Sign-out redirect URIs: http://localhost:8080/
   Controlled access: Allow everyone in your organization to access
   uncheck “Immediate app access with Federation Broker Mode“
   

5. Save the application and note the Client ID

Confirm you are added under Assignment

2. Configure API Scopes

1. Navigate to: Security → API → Authorization Servers → default
2. Verify scopes exist:
   • openid - Required for OpenID Connect
   • profile - User profile information
   • email - User email address
3. Add custom scope:
   • Name: api
   • Description: API access for AgentCore
   • Include in public metadata: ✅

Under Security → API → Trusted Origins, enable CORS for http://localhost:8080
Origin: http://localhost:8080
 ✅ Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
 ✅ Redirect
 ✅ iFrame embed
 ✅ Allows iFrame embedding of Okta End User Dashboard

3. Create Machine-to-Machine Application

For AgentCore workload authentication:

1. Create a new app integration: API Services
2. Configure:

   App name: aws-support-agent-m2m
   Grant types: ✅ Client Credentials
   Client authentication: ✅ Client secret
   Enable : Token Exchange
   Disable : Require Demonstrating Proof of Possession (DPoP)
   

3. Save and note the Client ID and Client Secret

Project Configuration

1. Update Static Configuration

Edit config/static-config.yaml:

# Okta OAuth2 Configuration
okta:
  domain: "your-domain.okta.com"  # Replace with your Okta domain
  
  # OAuth2 authorization server configuration
  authorization_server: "default"
  
  # Client configuration for client credentials flow (app-to-app)
  client_credentials:
    client_id: "YOUR_M2M_CLIENT_ID"      # From M2M app
    client_secret: "${OKTA_CLIENT_SECRET}"  # Set via environment variable
    scope: "api"
  
  # Client configuration for user authentication (PKCE flow)
  user_auth:
    client_id: "YOUR_SPA_CLIENT_ID"      # From SPA app
    audience: "YOUR_SPA_CLIENT_ID"       # Same as client_id
    redirect_uri: "http://localhost:8080/callback"
    scope: "openid profile email"
  
  # JWT token configuration
  jwt:
    audience: "YOUR_SPA_CLIENT_ID"       # Your SPA client ID
    issuer: "https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default"
    discovery_url: "https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/openid-configuration"
    cache_duration: 300
    refresh_threshold: 60

# AgentCore JWT Authorizer Configuration
agentcore:
  jwt_authorizer:
    discovery_url: "https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/openid-configuration"
    allowed_audience: 
      - "YOUR_SPA_CLIENT_ID"

2. Set Environment Variables

# Optional: Set AWS profile if different from default
export AWS_PROFILE="your-aws-profile"

Local Testing Setup

1. Configure nginx (Optional)

For local PKCE testing, you need to add the server block to your nginx configuration:

# Navigate to your project directory
cd /path/to/your/AgentCore/project

# Step 1: Update paths in the nginx config file
# Replace placeholder paths with your actual project path
sed -i '' "s|/path/to/your/AgentCore|$(pwd)|g" okta-auth/nginx/okta-local.conf

# Verify the paths were updated correctly
cat okta-auth/nginx/okta-local.conf | grep "root\|alias"

# Step 2: IMPORTANT - okta-local.conf contains only a server block, not a complete nginx.conf
# You must integrate this server block into your existing nginx configuration.

# Manual Integration Steps:
# 1. Find your nginx.conf location:
#    - macOS (Homebrew): /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
#    - Linux: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
#    - Docker: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

# 2. Make a backup of your current nginx.conf
sudo cp /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf.backup  # macOS
# sudo cp /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.backup                    # Linux

# 3. Open your main nginx.conf file for editing:
sudo nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf  # macOS
# sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf          # Linux

# 4. Find the http {} block in nginx.conf
# 5. Copy the entire server block content from okta-auth/nginx/okta-local.conf
# 6. Paste it inside the existing http {} block (before the closing })
# 7. Save and close the file

# NOTE: The setup-local-nginx.sh script is not functional as it attempts to use
# okta-local.conf as a complete nginx configuration, which will fail.

# Step 3: Test and reload nginx
# Test nginx configuration for syntax errors
sudo nginx -t

# If test passes, reload nginx configuration
sudo nginx -s reload

# Verify nginx is running and listening on port 8080
curl http://localhost:8080/health
# Should return: healthy

2. Test OAuth Flow

Use the provided HTML test page:

1. Update configuration in okta-auth/iframe-oauth-flow.html:

   const config = {
     clientId: 'YOUR_SPA_CLIENT_ID',
     redirectUri: 'http://localhost:8080/okta-auth/',
     authorizationEndpoint: 'https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/authorize',
     tokenEndpoint: 'https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/token',
     scope: 'openid profile email',
   };
   

Or you can enter the values in html page.

2. Open browser: http://localhost:9090/okta-auth/iframe-oauth-flow.html
3. Click "Login with Okta" and complete authentication
4. Copy the access token for testing

Deploy and Test the System

1. Deploy Infrastructure - go back to README.md for instructions

# Deploy the AgentCore system
cd agentcore-runtime/deployment
./01-prerequisites.sh
./02-create-memory.sh
./03-setup-oauth-provider.sh  # This uses your Okta config
./04-deploy-mcp-tool-lambda.sh
./05-create-gateway-targets.sh
./06-deploy-diy.sh
./07-deploy-sdk.sh

2. Test Authentication

# Test OAuth provider setup
cd agentcore-runtime/runtime-ops-scripts
python oauth_test.py test-config

# Expected output:
# ✅ M2M token obtained successfully
# ✅ OAuth2 token obtained successfully

3. Test End-to-End

# Use the chat client
cd chatbot-client/src
python client.py --interactive

# Or test directly with curl (using token from step 2)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/invocations \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "List my S3 buckets",
    "session_id": "test-session",
    "actor_id": "user"
  }'

Authentication Flow

User Authentication (PKCE)

1. User → Okta login → JWT token
2. Chat Client → AgentCore Runtime (with JWT)
3. Runtime validates JWT against Okta discovery endpoint
4. Runtime processes user request

Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

1. Runtime → AgentCore Identity → Workload token
2. Workload token → OAuth provider → M2M token
3. M2M token → AgentCore Gateway → Tools access
4. Tools → AWS services → Results

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Invalid Client Error

# Check your client IDs in static-config.yaml
grep -A 10 "client_credentials:" config/static-config.yaml
grep -A 10 "user_auth:" config/static-config.yaml

2. Token Validation Failures

# Verify Okta discovery endpoint
curl https://your-domain.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/openid-configuration

# Test token validation
python agentcore-runtime/runtime-ops-scripts/oauth_test.py test-config

3. M2M Authentication Fails

# Check environment variable
echo $OKTA_CLIENT_SECRET

# Test M2M flow specifically
python agentcore-runtime/runtime-ops-scripts/oauth_test.py workload-token bac-diy

4. Gateway Connection Issues

# Check if gateway and targets are deployed
cd agentcore-runtime/gateway-ops-scripts
python list-gateways.py
python list-targets.py

Debug Commands

# Check deployed OAuth provider
cd agentcore-runtime/runtime-ops-scripts
python credentials_manager.py list

# View runtime logs
cd agentcore-runtime/runtime-ops-scripts  
python runtime_manager.py list
python logs_manager.py get <runtime-id>

# Test configuration validation
cd /path/to/your/AgentCore/project
python -c "from shared.config_manager import AgentCoreConfigManager; AgentCoreConfigManager().validate()"

Log Analysis

AgentCore Runtime logs (look for):

• ✅ OAuth initialized with provider
• ✅ M2M token obtained successfully
• ✅ MCP client ready

Common error patterns:

• ❌ OAuth provider not found → Check deployment step 03
• ❌ Invalid client credentials → Check client secret environment variable
• ❌ Token validation failed → Check JWT configuration in static-config.yaml

Security Best Practices

1. Never commit secrets - Always use environment variables for client secrets
2. Use HTTPS in production - Update redirect URIs for production deployment
3. Rotate tokens regularly - Configure appropriate token lifetimes in Okta
4. Validate token audiences - Ensure JWT audience validation is strict
5. Monitor authentication - Review Okta system logs regularly

Production Deployment

For production, update:

1. Redirect URIs to your production domain
2. Environment variables in your deployment pipeline
3. Network security to restrict access appropriately
4. Token lifetimes based on your security requirements

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For additional help, refer to:

• Okta Developer Documentation
• AgentCore Documentation
• Project README for complete system setup