Intro & Setup

🔐 Run Keycloak with Docker first

Start Keycloak in dev mode:

docker run --name keycloak -p 8080:8080 \
  -e KC_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin \
  -e KC_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin \
  quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:latest start-dev

Then open http://localhost:8080 and sign in to the admin console with admin / admin.

start-dev uses an in-memory database — perfect for learning. Use a real database and start for production.

What is Keycloak?

Keycloak is an open-source Identity and Access Management (IAM) server. It handles authentication, Single Sign-On (SSO), and authorization for your applications using industry standards: OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth2, and SAML. Instead of building login forms, password hashing, token handling, and MFA in every app, you delegate all of that to Keycloak.

What this course covers

• Intro & Setup (this module)
• Realms, Clients & Roles
• Users, Groups & Credentials
• OIDC & OAuth2 Flows
• Securing Apps
• Tokens, Scopes & Mappers
• Identity Federation & Social Login
• Admin, Theming & Production

The core loop

Every Keycloak workflow follows the same four-step loop:

1. Run Keycloak with Docker
2. Open the admin console
3. Create a realm and register a client
4. Secure your app using OIDC

flowchart TD
  A[Docker run Keycloak] --> B[Admin console]
  B --> C[Create realm + client]
  C --> D[Secure your app with OIDC]

The setup-to-secure flow

Lessons in this module

Lesson	What you will learn
What is Keycloak?	Core concepts, protocols, and where Keycloak fits in your architecture
Run with Docker	Start Keycloak locally and log in to the admin console
Admin Console Tour	Navigate realms, clients, users, and roles in the UI
Dev vs Production	Differences between start-dev and production mode

🔐 Key point

Keycloak centralizes login so your apps never store passwords — they delegate to Keycloak via OIDC.

What is Keycloak?

A cloud database service An open-source Identity and Access Management server A reverse proxy for microservices A container orchestration tool

Which standard protocols does Keycloak support for authentication?

REST and GraphQL SMTP and FTP OpenID Connect, OAuth2, and SAML SSH and TLS

What is the benefit of using Keycloak instead of building auth yourself?

It makes your app faster It eliminates the need for a database Your apps delegate identity to Keycloak instead of storing passwords themselves It automatically deploys your app to the cloud

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