Setting Up Keycloak with Django Allauth and OpenID Connect Locally

This guide provides a step-by-step setup of Keycloak authentication with Django Allauth and a frontend using OIDC (OpenID Connect).

1. Set Up Keycloak with Docker Compose

The Docker Compose configuration will:

Run PostgreSQL for both Django and Keycloak.
Import a predefined Keycloak realm (neops) with necessary clients.

1.1 Configure .env for Keycloak

Before running Docker Compose, update your .env file to include the Keycloak configuration:

...
# Docker Compose Settings
COMPOSE_FILE=docker-compose.base.yml:docker-compose.keycloak.yml

1.2 Start Services with Docker Compose

Now, run Docker Compose to start all services:

docker-compose up -d

What this does:

Redis starts on port 6380 for caching.
PostgreSQL (Main DB for Django) runs on localhost:5433.
PostgreSQL for Keycloak runs as keycloak_postgres.
Keycloak starts on http://localhost:8081/, importing the neops realm.
Elasticsearch starts on http://localhost:9200.

1.3 Verify Keycloak Setup

Once Keycloak is running:

Login to Keycloak Admin Console
URL: http://localhost:8081/admin
Username: admin
Password: admin
Verify Imported Realm
Open "Realms" → Ensure neops is imported.
Under Clients, you should see:
- neops-auth → Used by the backend.
- neops-client → Used by the frontend.
You can create the users that you want.

2. Set Up Django Backend with Keycloak

The backend uses Django Allauth for authentication.

2.1 Install Dependencies

Ensure you have Python and Poetry installed. Then, inside the backend directory:

poetry install

2.2 Configure Authentication in Django

Modify the .env file to include:

AUTH_PROVIDERS_CONFIG_PATH="./auth_providers_with_secret.json"
NEOPS_PLUGINS="... neops_auth_allauth"

Remove: neops_auth_django and neops_auth_keycloak.

2.3 Configure Authentication Providers

To support multiple Keycloak providers, modify the auth_providers_with_secret.json file:

{
  "providers": [
    {
      "provider_id": "keycloak",
      "name": "Keycloak",
      "client_id": "neops-auth",
      "secret": "********",
      "settings": {
        "server_url": "http://localhost:8081/realms/neops/.well-known/openid-configuration"
      }
    }
  ]
}

2.4 Apply Migrations and Start Django

Run the database migrations:

poetry run python manage.py migrate

Then, start the Django server:

poetry run python manage.py runserver

3. Set Up Frontend

The frontend uses OIDC (OpenID Connect) for authentication.