Best Practices Beyond Connection Metadata

Overview

Auth0 limits connection metadata to 10 attributes, which can be restrictive for storing role-claim mappings in RBAC implementations. This article explores alternatives to avoid exceeding this limit.

Applies To

  • Metadata
  • Role assignments
  • Actions

Cause

Auth0’s Management API allows a maximum of 10 metadata attributes in a connection, with each connection limited to 255 characters. While this works for many use cases, organizations with extensive role-based access configurations may exceed this limit, impacting maintainability and performance.

Solution

To handle role-claim mappings effectively without exceeding metadata limits, consider the following alternatives:

Using Auth0 Actions for Role Assignments:

  • Implement custom logic in Auth0 Actions to dynamically evaluate user roles based on claims.
  • Actions provide greater flexibility by allowing conditional role assignment without storing static metadata.

Grouping Metadata Attributes:

  • Instead of storing multiple separate attributes, combine related data into structured JSON objects within the metadata.
  • This approach reduces the number of attributes while maintaining readability.

External Configuration Storage:

  • Store role-claim mapping details in an external database or API.
  • Use Actions to fetch and process role data at runtime, ensuring scalability.