Headless Identity Implementation Guide

What Is Headless Identity?
About This Guide
Headless Login Overview
Headless Registration Overview
Headless Forgot Password Overview
Building Native Single Sign-On Experiences
Complete Prerequisites for Headless Identity
Set Up an Authentication Provider for Single Sign-On
Set Up an Experience Cloud Site for Headless Identity
Set Up an External Client App for Headless Identity
Use Postman to Work with Headless Identity APIs
JavaScript Examples for Headless Identity APIs
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Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

What Is Headless Identity?

Salesforce Headless Identity gives you the ability to separate back-end authentication processes from front-end identity experiences. By calling Headless Identity APIs, you can use the power of Customer Identity for authentication while maintaining complete control over the user experience in an off-platform or third-party app. Salesforce offers three Headless Identity features: login with Headless Login API, registration with Headless Registration API, and password reset with Headless Forgot Password API. You can also link a single sign-on (SSO) provider to your headless app to create a native SSO experience.
Available in: both Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs) and Lightning Experience
Available in: Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Headless Identity use cases fall into two categories.

  • Apps that complement a customer-facing Experience Cloud site. Users fully interact with and log in to the Experience Cloud site and the app. For example, you build a mobile app in addition to your main Experience Cloud site because you want to target mobile-first users. You want to fully design the user experience to suit your company’s branding. You can completely control the user experience in your app while Salesforce provides identity services. And because you already have an Experience Cloud site, you can simplify your setup process.
  • Standalone apps. Users interact with and log in to your app, but not an Experience Cloud site. For example, your company builds your own customer-facing apps to align with your digital marketing strategy. Because you want to use Salesforce to manage customer outreach and store information, enabling your users to log in and register for your apps is important. But you still want full control over the user experience in your apps. Headless Identity means you can have it all—you can provide identity services to your apps, manage customers in Salesforce, and keep up with your company’s digital marketing strategy.

    For use cases in this category, you still create and set up an Experience Cloud site because Headless Identity APIs are exposed and configured through Experience Cloud. The Experience Cloud site also functions as a way to store your customer accounts and contact records and manage access to your app. But your users don’t interact with it directly.