Overview

Managed Auth creates and maintains authenticated browser sessions for your AI agents. Store credentials once, and Kernel re-authenticates automatically when needed. When you launch Kernel browsers with Managed Auth connections, your agent starts already logged in and ready to go.

How It Works

Create a Connection

A Managed Auth Connection attaches an authenticated domain to a browser profile so you can automatically be logged in when you launch future browsers. A single profile can have multiple auth connections — one per domain you want to keep authenticated.

const auth = await kernel.auth.connections.create({
  domain: 'netflix.com',
  profile_name: 'netflix-user-123',
});

Start a Login Session

A Managed Auth Session is the corresponding login flow for the specified connection. Users provide credentials via a Kernel-hosted page or your own UI.

Specify a Credential to enable re-authentication without user input.

const login = await kernel.auth.connections.login(auth.id);

// Send user to login page
console.log('Login URL:', login.hosted_url);

// Poll until complete
let state = await kernel.auth.connections.retrieve(auth.id);
while (state.flow_status === 'IN_PROGRESS') {
  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2000));
  state = await kernel.auth.connections.retrieve(auth.id);
}

if (state.status === 'AUTHENTICATED') {
  console.log('Authenticated!');
}

Use the Profile

Once the auth connection completes, the authenticated session is saved to the browser profile specified in step 1. You can attach additional auth connections to the same profile for other domains. When you create a browser with the profile, all of its auth connections are available — the browser session will already be logged in to every connected domain.

const browser = await kernel.browsers.create({
  profile: { name: 'netflix-user-123' },
  stealth: true,
});

// Navigate to the site—you're already logged in
await page.goto('https://netflix.com');

The steps above are the integration loop — what you wire up once per connection. After the initial login, the connection enters its runtime loop of periodic health checks and automatic re-authentication; see Connection Lifecycle for how that works and how to tune it.

Works on any website - Login pages are discovered and handled automatically
SSO/OAuth support - "Sign in with Google/GitHub/Microsoft" buttons work out-of-the-box, with common SSO provider domains automatically allowed
2FA/OTP handling - TOTP codes automated with automatic retry on expiry, SMS/email/push OTP are supported
Post-login URL - Get the URL where login landed (post_login_url) so you can start automations from the right page
Session monitoring - Periodic health checks and automatic re-authentication when sessions expire with stored credentials
Secure by default - Credentials encrypted at rest, never exposed in API responses, or passed to LLMs

Security

Feature	Description
Encrypted credentials	Values encrypted with per-organization keys
No credential exposure	Never returned in API responses or passed to LLMs
Encrypted profiles	Browser session state encrypted end-to-end
Isolated execution	Each login runs in an isolated browser environment

How It Works

Create a Connection

Start a Login Session

Use the Profile

Choose Your Integration

Hosted UI

React Component

Programmatic

Why Managed Auth?

Security

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