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Product4 April 2022·3 min read

Getting Started with the Paycux Multi-Factor Authentication API

Every feature carries a maintenance bill that comes due long after the launch post.

Paycux engineering

Every feature carries a maintenance bill that comes due long after the launch post. The useful discipline is deciding, up front, who is going to pay it.

This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.

Multi-Factor Authentication: what it is and how it works

Multi-Factor Authentication: what it is and how it works deserves its own treatment. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Introducing an additional authentication factor

Consider introducing an additional authentication factor. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

  • Choose defaults as carefully as features
  • Settle the name before you ship the thing
  • Ship the smallest honest version
  • Say plainly what the feature does not do

Getting started using the Node.js SDK

That brings us to getting started using the node.js sdk. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

The MFA flow

The MFA flow is where this gets concrete. Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Naming is design work.

Enrolling a user in an authentication factor

Consider enrolling a user in an authentication factor. Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Creating an authentication challenge

Creating an authentication challenge deserves its own treatment. Defaults are the product. Most people will never open the settings screen, which means the behaviour you chose for them is the behaviour they will experience forever.

Naming is design work. If the team argues about what to call something, the disagreement is usually about what it is, and shipping before that is settled means shipping the confusion to customers.

Verifying the challenge to log in

Verifying the challenge to log in is where this gets concrete. Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Ship the smallest version that is honest about its limits. A feature that does one thing completely beats one that does five things with an asterisk on each.

Where this leaves us

If there is one thing worth taking away, it is that the expensive decisions are the ones made implicitly. Making them on purpose costs an afternoon.

If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.

Everything here, already built

Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API. Start with the quickstart and have a working sign-in this afternoon.

Start selling to enterprise customers

Create an account, point sign-in at Paycux, and get back to the part of the product that is actually yours.