I apologize for the misunderstanding. Let me clarify how Ory Oathkeeper can check with Ory Kratos for requests coming to localhost:3000. When you're running your application on localhost:3000 and want Ory Oathkeeper to authenticate requests using Ory Kratos, you'll need to set up a specific authenticator in your Oathkeeper rules. The most common authenticator for this scenario is the

cookie_session

authenticator. Here's how you can configure Ory Oathkeeper to check with Kratos for any URL on localhost3000 1. First, set up an access rule in Oathkeeper that matches all requests to your application. Here's an example [from the Oathkeeper documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/oathkeeper/configure-deploy#access-rules):

yaml
- id: "my-app-rule"
  upstream:
    url: "<http://localhost:3000>"
  match:
    url: "http://<127.0.0.1|localhost>:4455/<**>"
    methods:
      - GET
      - POST
      - PUT
      - DELETE
      - PATCH
  authenticators:
    - handler: cookie_session
  authorizer:
    handler: allow
  mutators:
    - handler: noop

2. In this rule, the

cookie_session

authenticator is crucial. It needs to be configured to check with Kratos. Here's how you can set it up in your Oathkeeper configuration [as shown in the Kratos documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/guides/zero-trust-iap-proxy-identity-access-proxy#configuration):

yaml
authenticators:
  cookie_session:
    enabled: true
    config:
      check_session_url: <http://kratos:4433/sessions/whoami>
      preserve_path: true
      extra_from: "@this"
      subject_from: "identity.id"
      only:
        - ory_kratos_session

3. The

check_session_url

is the key here. It points to Kratos's

/sessions/whoami

endpoint, which Oathkeeper will use to validate the session cookie. 4. When a request comes to Oathkeeper (which should be listening on port 4455 as per the rule), it will: - Check if the request has the

ory_kratos_session

cookie. - If present, it will forward this cookie to Kratos's

/sessions/whoami

endpoint. - Kratos will validate the session and return the session information if valid. - Oathkeeper will then allow or deny the request based on this response. 5. Make sure your application is configured to send requests through Oathkeeper (on port 4455) instead of directly to localhost:3000. Remember, for this setup to work in a local development environment, you need to ensure that: - Kratos is running and accessible to Oathkeeper (usually on the same Docker network). - Your application, Oathkeeper, and Kratos are all configured to use the same domain for cookies (usually localhost for local development). For local development, you might also want to use the [Ory CLI Tunnel](https://www.ory.sh/docs/getting-started/local-development#local-development), which can help manage domain and cookie issues when working with Ory services locally.

I apologize for the misunderstanding. Let me clarify how Ory Oathkeeper can check with Ory Kratos for requests coming to localhost:3000. When you're running your application on localhost:3000 and want Ory Oathkeeper to authenticate requests using Ory Kratos, you'll need to set up a specific authenticator in your Oathkeeper rules. The most common authenticator for this scenario is the

cookie_session

authenticator. Here's how you can configure Ory Oathkeeper to check with Kratos for any URL on localhost3000 1. First, set up an access rule in Oathkeeper that matches all requests to your application. Here's an example [from the Oathkeeper documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/oathkeeper/configure-deploy#access-rules):

yaml - id: "my-app-rule"   upstream:     url: "<http://localhost:3000>"   match:     url: "http://<127.0.0.1|localhost>:4455/<**>"     methods:       - GET       - POST       - PUT       - DELETE       - PATCH   authenticators:     - handler: cookie_session   authorizer:     handler: allow   mutators:     - handler: noop

2. In this rule, the

cookie_session

authenticator is crucial. It needs to be configured to check with Kratos. Here's how you can set it up in your Oathkeeper configuration [as shown in the Kratos documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/guides/zero-trust-iap-proxy-identity-access-proxy#configuration):

yaml authenticators:   cookie_session:     enabled: true     config:       check_session_url: <http://kratos:4433/sessions/whoami>       preserve_path: true       extra_from: "@this"       subject_from: "identity.id"       only:         - ory_kratos_session

3. The

check_session_url

is the key here. It points to Kratos's

/sessions/whoami

endpoint, which Oathkeeper will use to validate the session cookie. 4. When a request comes to Oathkeeper (which should be listening on port 4455 as per the rule), it will: - Check if the request has the

ory_kratos_session

cookie. - If present, it will forward this cookie to Kratos's

/sessions/whoami

endpoint. - Kratos will validate the session and return the session information if valid. - Oathkeeper will then allow or deny the request based on this response. 5. Make sure your application is configured to send requests through Oathkeeper (on port 4455) instead of directly to localhost:3000. Remember, for this setup to work in a local development environment, you need to ensure that: - Kratos is running and accessible to Oathkeeper (usually on the same Docker network). - Your application, Oathkeeper, and Kratos are all configured to use the same domain for cookies (usually localhost for local development). For local development, you might also want to use the [Ory CLI Tunnel](https://www.ory.sh/docs/getting-started/local-development#local-development), which can help manage domain and cookie issues when working with Ory services locally. This setup allows Oathkeeper to act as a proxy, checking every request with Kratos before forwarding it to your application on localhost:3000.

Yes, you can certainly use JWT (JSON Web Token) authorization instead of cookie-based sessions with Ory Oathkeeper. Oathkeeper provides a

jwt

authenticator that can validate JWT tokens. Here's how you can set it up: 1. First, you'll need to modify your Oathkeeper configuration to use the

jwt

authenticator. Here's an example configuration [from the Oathkeeper documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/oathkeeper/pipeline/authn#jwt):

yaml authenticators:   jwt:     enabled: true     config:       jwks_urls:         - <https://my-website.com/.well-known/jwks.json>       scope_strategy: none       required_scope:         - scope-a         - scope-b       target_audience:         - <https://my-service.com/api/users>       trusted_issuers:         - <https://my-issuer.com/>       allowed_algorithms:         - RS256       token_from:         header: Authorization

2. In your access rule, replace the

cookie_session

authenticator with the

jwt

authenticator:

yaml - id: "my-app-rule"   upstream:     url: "<http://localhost:3000>"   match:     url: "http://<127.0.0.1|localhost>:4455/<**>"     methods:       - GET       - POST       - PUT       - DELETE       - PATCH   authenticators:     - handler: jwt   authorizer:     handler: allow   mutators:     - handler: noop

3. The

jwt

authenticator will look for the JWT in the

Authorization

header by default. You can customize this using the

token_from

configuration [as shown in the Oathkeeper documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/oathkeeper/pipeline/authn#bearer_token-configuration):

yaml token_from:   header: Authorization   # or   # query_parameter: auth-token   # or   # cookie: auth-token

4. Make sure your application is sending the JWT in the specified location (header, query parameter, or cookie) when making requests. 5. You'll need to ensure that the JWTs are being issued correctly, typically by Ory Kratos or another identity provider. Ory Kratos can be configured to issue JWTs for sessions. You can use the [Session to JWT feature](https://www.ory.sh/docs/identities/session-to-jwt-cors) to convert Ory Sessions to JWTs:

javascript const session = await frontend.toSession({   tokenize_as: "jwt_example_template1", }) const jwt = session.tokenized

By using this approach, you can maintain the security benefits of Ory's session management while also leveraging the flexibility of JWTs for scenarios where cookies are not ideal, such as cross-origin requests or integration with certain third-party services. Remember to properly secure your JWTs and manage their lifecycle, including expiration and refresh mechanisms, as JWTs are typically stateless and can't be invalidated server-side like sessions can.