Symfony

Overview

Symfony is a set of reusable PHP components and a PHP framework for web projects. It provides a robust set of features for web applications, making it one of the most popular choices for building server-side applications. This example demonstrates how to integrate Zitadel using the OAuth 2.0 PKCE flow to authenticate users securely and maintain sessions across your application.

Auth library

This example uses Symfony Security, the standard authentication component for Symfony applications. Symfony Security implements the OpenID Connect (OIDC) flow through a custom authenticator, manages PKCE, performs secure token exchange, and provides session management through Symfony's firewall system.

What this example demonstrates

This example shows a complete authentication implementation using Symfony with Zitadel. Users start on a public landing page, click a login button to authenticate with Zitadel using the secure PKCE flow, and are redirected to a protected profile page displaying their user information after successful authentication.

The application implements server-side session management with Symfony's security system, storing authentication state securely through the framework's user provider pattern. Protected routes use Symfony Security's firewall configuration to automatically redirect unauthenticated users to the sign-in flow, ensuring only authenticated users can access sensitive areas. The profile page displays comprehensive user information including OIDC claims and session metadata.

The application demonstrates proper federated logout by terminating sessions both locally and with Zitadel's end-session endpoint, complete with CSRF protection using state parameters. Additionally, it includes automatic token refresh using refresh tokens to maintain long-lived sessions without requiring users to re-authenticate. The example uses Zitadel-specific scopes like urn:zitadel:iam:user:metadata and urn:zitadel:iam:org:projects:roles to access extended user attributes and role information for implementing role-based access control (RBAC).

Getting started

Prerequisites

Before running this example, you need to create and configure a PKCE application in the Zitadel Console. Follow the PKCE application setup guide to:

Create a new Web application in your Zitadel project
Configure it to use the PKCE authentication method
Set up your redirect URIs (e.g., http://localhost:3000/auth/callback for development)
Configure post-logout redirect URIs (e.g., http://localhost:3000/auth/logout/callback)
Copy your Client ID for use in the next steps
Optionally enable refresh tokens in Token Settings for long-lived sessions

Note: Make sure to enable Dev Mode in the Zitadel Console if you're using HTTP URLs during local development. For production, always use HTTPS URLs and disable Dev Mode.

Run the example

Once you have your Zitadel application configured:

Clone the repository.
Create a .env file (copy from .env.example) and configure it with the values from your Zitadel application. Use these exact environment variable names:
```
APP_SECRET=your-app-secret-key
SERVER_URL=http://localhost:3000
SERVER_PORT=3000
ZITADEL_DOMAIN=https://your-zitadel-domain
ZITADEL_CLIENT_ID=your-zitadel-application-client-id
ZITADEL_CLIENT_SECRET=your-randomly-generated-client-secret
ZITADEL_POST_LOGOUT_URL=http://localhost:3000/auth/logout/callback
```
Replace these values with:
- Your actual Zitadel instance URL for ZITADEL_DOMAIN (the issuer)
- The Client ID you copied when creating the application for ZITADEL_CLIENT_ID
- The post-logout redirect URI for ZITADEL_POST_LOGOUT_URL
- A strong random string for APP_SECRET (generate using: php -r "echo bin2hex(random_bytes(32));")
- A randomly generated string for ZITADEL_CLIENT_SECRET (generate using: php -r "echo bin2hex(random_bytes(32));")
Install dependencies using Composer with composer install and start the development server with composer run dev to verify the authentication flow end-to-end.