Authentication & Authorization

LocalAI supports two authentication modes: legacy API key authentication (simple shared keys) and a full user authentication system with roles, sessions, OAuth, and per-user usage tracking.

Legacy API Key Authentication

The simplest way to protect your LocalAI instance is with API keys. Set one or more keys via environment variable or CLI flag:

# Single key
LOCALAI_API_KEY=sk-my-secret-key localai run

# Multiple keys (comma-separated)
LOCALAI_API_KEY=key1,key2,key3 localai run

Clients provide the key via any of these methods:

• Authorization: Bearer <key> header
• x-api-key: <key> header
• xi-api-key: <key> header
• token cookie

Legacy API keys grant full admin access - there is no role separation. For multi-user deployments with role-based access, use the user authentication system instead.

API keys can also be managed at runtime through the Runtime Settings interface.

Protected and anonymous HTTP routes

When you configure database authentication or legacy API keys, LocalAI makes the HTTP surface private by default. An anonymous request succeeds only for an approved method and path or an explicit deployment override. If you configure neither authentication mode, the authentication middleware does not restrict requests.

Public discovery APIs

The following discovery requests are available anonymously:

• GET /.well-known/localai.json
• GET /api/instructions
• GET /api/instructions/{name}
• Swagger GET requests at /swagger and under /swagger/

These discovery APIs describe the server’s API surface. The endpoints that they advertise still require credentials unless this section lists them as public or bootstrap routes.

Anonymous bootstrap routes

LocalAI also permits the requests needed for health checks, credential acquisition, and the login UI. These routes do not make the rest of the API public.

• Health checks: GET /healthz and GET /readyz.
• Authentication status and token login: GET /api/auth/status and POST /api/auth/token-login.
• Local registration and login: POST /api/auth/register and POST /api/auth/login.
• GitHub OAuth: GET /api/auth/github/login and GET /api/auth/github/callback.
• OIDC: GET /api/auth/oidc/login and GET /api/auth/oidc/callback.
• CORS preflight requests: OPTIONS on every path. A cross-origin preflight cannot carry credentials by HTTP spec, so these requests are never gated on auth; the CORS middleware answers them, which grants no API access.
• SPA shell routes: GET /, HEAD /, and GET requests at /app, /browse, /login, /invite/*, and /explorer. Subpaths under /app/ and /browse/ are also available through GET.
• SPA assets: GET /favicon.svg and GET requests under /assets/, /locales/, and /static/.
• Branding reads: GET /api/branding and GET requests under /branding/asset/. Branding mutations still require admin credentials.

Routes that require credentials

Without an explicit deployment override, every other route requires credentials. This includes GET /version, all model and backend API routes, and all inference routes. MCP and moderation aliases are also private:

• POST /v1/mcp/chat/completions, POST /mcp/v1/chat/completions, and POST /mcp/chat/completions
• POST /v1/moderations and POST /moderations

Generated output URLs also require credentials. This applies to every URL under /generated-audio/, /generated-images/, /generated-videos/, and /generated-3d/.

Explicit deployment overrides

Embedded deployments can add path prefixes to ApplicationConfig.PathWithoutAuth. Each prefix bypasses global authentication for every HTTP method below that prefix. Route-specific authorization still applies when the route registers it. Keep these overrides as narrow as possible; the default list is empty.

Two legacy flags provide a separate GET-only compatibility override when legacy API keys are configured:

• LOCALAI_DISABLE_API_KEY_REQUIREMENT_FOR_HTTP_GET=true enables the override.
• LOCALAI_HTTP_GET_EXEMPTED_ENDPOINTS sets the regular expressions for the exempt GET routes.

The endpoint expressions have no effect unless you enable LOCALAI_DISABLE_API_KEY_REQUIREMENT_FOR_HTTP_GET. Review custom expressions carefully because they can expose protected reads.

User Authentication System

The user authentication system provides:

• User accounts with email, name, and avatar
• Role-based access control (admin vs. user)
• Session-based authentication with secure cookies
• OAuth login (GitHub) and OIDC single sign-on (Keycloak, Google, Okta, Authentik, etc.)
• Per-user API keys for programmatic access
• Admin route gating - management endpoints are restricted to admins
• Per-user usage tracking with token consumption metrics

Enabling Authentication

Set LOCALAI_AUTH=true or provide a GitHub OAuth Client ID or OIDC Client ID (which auto-enables auth):

# Enable with SQLite (default, stored at {DataPath}/database.db)
LOCALAI_AUTH=true localai run

# Enable with GitHub OAuth
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
LOCALAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
localai run

# Enable with OIDC provider (e.g. Keycloak)
LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER=https://keycloak.example.com/realms/myrealm \
LOCALAI_OIDC_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
LOCALAI_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
LOCALAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
localai run

# Enable with PostgreSQL
LOCALAI_AUTH=true \
LOCALAI_AUTH_DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host/dbname \
localai run

Enabling auth on an existing instance

Enabling user authentication does not assign existing data to an account. With authentication off, everything the chats made (chats, saved agents, triggers, connector bindings, MCP connectors, notifications and the files of the workspace) belongs to one anonymous owner, and that owner is not an account. Authenticated users, admins included, get separate storage, so the anonymous data stays in the database or on disk but no account can see it, in the API or the Web UI.

What happens to each part when you switch authentication on:

• Chats, saved agents, notifications and files stay under the anonymous owner. No user sees them. Copy what you need into the new account first (see the steps below).
• Triggers and connector bindings of the anonymous owner stop. The owner no longer exists as a user, so the trigger runner skips the next run and switches each trigger off with the reason “its owner no longer exists”, and a connector bot answers “not available” and is switched off.
• Collections made without a user belong to the root storage area. With authentication on, each user has their own collections (see Collections).
• Old agents, tasks, skills, Telegram connectors and saved chats of the previous agent pool are converted at start and given to the account that owned them (see Chats migration). With authentication on, an old item that belongs to no user is not converted: the report at /app/chats/conversion lists it as skipped, and you make it again under the intended account.

Before switching an existing instance:

1. Switch off the triggers and Telegram bindings you want to keep, while auth is still off.
2. Export what you want to keep. Export each chat as JSON (GET /api/chats/{id}/export?format=json) and each saved agent (GET /api/chats/agents/{id}/export). Recreate triggers and bindings by hand.
3. Stop LocalAI and back up its data path and any separately configured collection storage or databases.
4. Test the switch on a copy before changing the production instance.
5. Restrict access during bootstrap and register the intended administrator first.
6. Import the chats and agents under the intended user (POST /api/chats/import, POST /api/chats/agents/import). Recreate collections there as needed.
7. Grant the new accounts the features they need. Saved agents, triggers, connectors and agent jobs are off by default for a user (see Chats permissions); an administrator has all of them.
8. Open the conversion report and check each item, and verify credentials and required data, before resuming triggers and bots.

The first registered user becomes admin and bypasses approval or invite requirements. Setting LOCALAI_ADMIN_EMAIL promotes that email address, but does not reserve the first-admin role for it. Keep registration inaccessible to other users until bootstrap is complete.

An export holds the transcript and the settings of a chat, and the definition of an agent. It does not hold files, trigger state, bot tokens or the long-term state of the model. Keep the backup: LocalAI has no automatic migration of the anonymous owner’s data.

A trigger or a Telegram bot acts as its owner, with the owner’s rights: the agent gets only what the owner may use at that moment, under the owner’s quota and model allowlist. It does not use an API key of its own. An administrator who switches the chats feature off for a user, or the triggers or connectors feature, also stops what that user’s triggers and bots do, at their next run or message; the trigger and the binding stay, and work again when the feature is given back.

Configuration Reference

Note: network-backed storage. File-based SQLite relies on POSIX file locking, which is unreliable over network filesystems (SMB/CIFS/NFS, e.g. Azure Files / Azure Container Apps shared volumes). On such storage the auth DB can fail to migrate with database is locked. Use PostgreSQL (LOCALAI_AUTH_DATABASE_URL=postgres://...) when the data directory lives on shared or network storage, or place database.db on a local volume.

SQLite storage settings

One SQLite file holds the accounts and everything else that LocalAI keeps in the auth database (the chats, their files, the triggers and the notifications). Many parts of the server write to it at the same time, so LocalAI opens it with these settings:

WAL adds two files beside the database, database.db-wal and database.db-shm. Copy or back up all three together, or run PRAGMA wal_checkpoint(TRUNCATE) first.

You can change a setting in the database URL. A value that you give always wins, for example LOCALAI_AUTH_DATABASE_URL="/data/database.db?_pragma=journal_mode(DELETE)&_pragma=busy_timeout(30000)". Use journal_mode(DELETE) on a volume where WAL does not work (see the note above on network storage).

One process only. SQLite coordinates writers through file locks on one host. Run one LocalAI process per database file. Two servers on the same file, or on a file that is on a network share, are not supported: use PostgreSQL when more than one instance must share the accounts. The pool and the timeouts bound the waiting inside one process; they do not make a shared file safe.

A part of the code that holds a cursor open (rows that it reads one by one) and also writes needs a second connection for the write. Keep the cursors short, or read the rows into memory first, so the 16 connections cannot all be taken by cursors.

Disabling Local Authentication

If you want to enforce OAuth/OIDC-only login and prevent users from registering or logging in with email/password, set LOCALAI_DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH=true (or pass --disable-local-auth):

# OAuth-only setup (no email/password)
LOCALAI_DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH=true \
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
LOCALAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
localai run

When disabled:

• The login page will not show email/password forms (the UI checks the providers list from /api/auth/status)
• POST /api/auth/register returns 403 Forbidden
• POST /api/auth/login returns 403 Forbidden
• OAuth/OIDC login continues to work normally

Roles

There are two roles:

• Admin: Full access to all endpoints, including model management, backend configuration, system settings, traces, the saved agents, triggers and connectors of every user (read-only, with switch-off and delete), and user management.
• User: Access to inference endpoints only - chat completions, embeddings, image/video/audio generation, TTS, MCP chat, and their own usage statistics.

The first user to sign in is automatically assigned the admin role. Additional users can be promoted to admin via the admin user management API or by setting LOCALAI_ADMIN_EMAIL to their email address.

Registration Modes

Invite Links

Admins can generate single-use, time-limited invite links from Settings → Users and keys → Invites in the web UI (choose 1, 7 or 30 days), or via the API:

# Create an invite link (default: expires in 7 days)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/invites \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"expiresInHours": 168}'

# List all invites
curl http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/invites \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

# Revoke an unused invite
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/invites/<invite-id> \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

Share the invite URL (/invite/<code>) with the user. The link is shown once, when you create it: the invite list keeps only the first characters of the code, so a link you did not copy can only be revoked and made again. When the user opens it, the registration form is pre-filled with the invite code. LocalAI validates the code only when the user submits registration. Invite codes are single-use - once consumed, they cannot be reused. Expired or used invites are rejected.

For GitHub OAuth, the invite code is passed as a query parameter to the login URL (/api/auth/github/login?invite_code=<code>) and stored in a cookie during the OAuth flow.

Admin-Only Endpoints

When authentication is enabled, the following endpoints require admin role:

Model & Backend Management:

• GET /api/models, POST /api/models/install/*, POST /api/models/delete/*
• GET /api/backends, POST /api/backends/install/*, POST /api/backends/delete/*
• GET /api/operations, POST /api/operations/*/cancel, POST /api/operations/*/pause, POST /api/operations/*/dismiss
• GET /api/operations/history, DELETE /api/operations/history
• GET /models/available, GET /models/galleries, GET /models/jobs/*
• GET /backends, GET /backends/available, GET /backends/galleries

System & Monitoring:

• GET /api/traces, GET /api/traces/summary, GET /api/traces/{id}, POST /api/traces/clear
• GET /api/backend-traces, GET /api/backend-traces/{id}, POST /api/backend-traces/clear
• GET /api/backend-logs/*, POST /api/backend-logs/*/clear
• GET /api/resources, GET /api/settings, POST /api/settings
• GET /system, GET /backend/monitor, POST /backend/shutdown, POST /backend/load
• POST /v1/slots/save, POST /v1/slots/restore (write and read prompt-cache files on the host)

P2P:

• GET /api/p2p/*

User-Accessible Endpoints (all authenticated users):

• POST /v1/chat/completions, POST /v1/embeddings, POST /v1/completions
• POST /v1/images/generations, POST /v1/audio/*, POST /tts, POST /vad, POST /video
• GET /v1/models, POST /v1/tokenize, POST /v1/detokenize, POST /v1/detection
• POST /v1/mcp/chat/completions, POST /v1/messages, POST /v1/responses
• POST /stores/*, GET /api/cors-proxy
• GET /version, GET /api/features, GET /metrics
• GET /api/auth/usage (own usage data)

Web UI Access Control

When auth is enabled, the React UI sidebar dynamically shows/hides sections based on the user’s role:

• All users see: Home, Chat, Images, Video, TTS, Sound, Talk, Usage, API docs link
• Admins also see: Models, the Build console (Training, Recognition and the other tools that need an administrator), and the Operate console (Backends, Activity, Nodes, Traffic, Settings, and Users and keys)

Admin-only pages are also protected at the router level - navigating directly to an admin URL redirects non-admin users to the home page.

On Home, the memory line with the list of loaded models is shown to admins only, because it reads the admin endpoints GET /system and GET /api/resources. Other users do not see the line, rather than a “No models loaded” that may not be true.

In Chat, a non-admin user holding the mcp feature can select the MCP servers of a model whose configuration declares them (MCP → Servers, plus that model’s MCP prompts and resources). Users without the mcp feature only see client-side MCP. The model information panel and the automatic context size stay admin-only, because they read the full model configuration.

Sign-in, invite and account pages

The sign-in screen offers only what GET /api/auth/status reports:

• A GitHub or SSO button appears only when that provider is configured. With LOCALAI_DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH=true there is no email form.
• Email and password sign-in asks for one field at a time: the email, then the password. Both are sent in one call, so the server still never says whether an email exists.
• Registration asks for the email, then the name, password and (when the registration mode allows one) an invite code. A sign-up that waits for approval returns to the sign-in screen with a notice that an admin must approve it.
• On a server with no users yet, the first screen is “Create the admin account”.
• On a server protected only by legacy API keys, the screen asks for the key and nothing else.
• An invite link (/invite/<code>) opens registration with the code filled in and read-only.

The Account page has four tabs: Profile (name and picture address), Security (change a local password; for a GitHub or SSO account it says the password is managed by the provider), API keys, and Usage (your requests, tokens by model, and the limits an admin set on you, for the last 30 days). Settings → Users and keys has the people, the invites and your own API keys.

GitHub OAuth Setup

1. Create a GitHub OAuth App at Settings → Developer settings → OAuth Apps → New OAuth App
2. Set the Authorization callback URL to {LOCALAI_BASE_URL}/api/auth/github/callback
3. Set GITHUB_CLIENT_ID and GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET environment variables
4. Set LOCALAI_BASE_URL to your publicly-accessible URL

OIDC Setup

Any OIDC-compliant identity provider can be used for single sign-on. This includes Keycloak, Google, Okta, Authentik, Azure AD, and many others.

Steps:

1. Create a client/application in your OIDC provider
2. Set the redirect URL to {LOCALAI_BASE_URL}/api/auth/oidc/callback
3. Set the three environment variables: LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER, LOCALAI_OIDC_CLIENT_ID, LOCALAI_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET

LocalAI uses OIDC auto-discovery (the /.well-known/openid-configuration endpoint) and requests the standard scopes: openid, profile, email.

Provider examples:

# Keycloak
LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER=https://keycloak.example.com/realms/myrealm

# Google
LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER=https://accounts.google.com

# Authentik
LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER=https://authentik.example.com/application/o/localai/

# Okta
LOCALAI_OIDC_ISSUER=https://your-org.okta.com

For OIDC, invite codes work the same way as GitHub OAuth - the invite code is passed as a query parameter to the login URL (/api/auth/oidc/login?invite_code=<code>) and stored in a cookie during the OAuth flow.

User API Keys

Authenticated users can create personal API keys for programmatic access:

# Create an API key (requires session auth)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/auth/api-keys \
  -H "Cookie: session=<session-id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "My Script Key"}'

User API keys inherit the creating user’s role. Admin keys grant admin access; user keys grant user-level access.

You can pause a key without deleting it, and resume it later. Only the key’s owner can pause it. A paused key is rejected like an invalid key until it is resumed. Pause it until you resume it, or until a time in the future, after which it works again by itself:

# Pause until resumed
curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8080/api/auth/api-keys/<key-id> \
  -H "Cookie: session=<session-id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"disabled": true, "paused_until": null}'

# Pause until a given time (RFC 3339, must be in the future)
curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8080/api/auth/api-keys/<key-id> \
  -H "Cookie: session=<session-id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"disabled": false, "paused_until": "2030-01-01T00:00:00Z"}'

# Resume
curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8080/api/auth/api-keys/<key-id> \
  -H "Cookie: session=<session-id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"disabled": false, "paused_until": null}'

The key list returns disabled and, when set, pausedUntil for each key. The Account page in the web UI has a Pause and Resume button for each key.

A key can be created with a lifetime: send expiresIn (30d, 90d or 1y) or expiresAt (RFC 3339). Without either, the server applies LOCALAI_DEFAULT_API_KEY_EXPIRY when it is set, and the key does not expire otherwise. The full key is returned once, in the response to the create call; the list returns only its prefix, the creation time, lastUsed and expiresAt.

In the web UI, the API keys tab of the Account page and of Settings → Users and keys shows the signed-in person’s own keys: a new key is shown once with a Copy button, and the lifetime list sends expiresIn. Revoking a key waits ten seconds in the browser before it sends the DELETE, and Undo inside that time sends nothing; leaving the page sends a revoke that is still waiting. LocalAI lists a person’s keys only to that person, so an admin cannot list or revoke other users’ keys, in the UI or through the API. The Usage page can group requests by API key for everyone.

Auth API Endpoints

Usage Tracking

When authentication is enabled, LocalAI automatically tracks per-user token usage for inference endpoints. Usage data includes:

• Prompt tokens, completion tokens, and total tokens per request
• Model used and endpoint called
• Request duration
• Timestamp for time-series aggregation

Viewing Usage

Usage is accessible through the Usage page in the web UI (visible to all authenticated users) or via the API:

# Get your own usage (default: last 30 days)
curl http://localhost:8080/api/auth/usage?period=month \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <key>"

# Admin: get all users' usage
curl http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/usage?period=week \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

# Admin: filter by specific user
curl "http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/usage?period=month&user_id=<user-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

Period values:

• day - last 24 hours, bucketed by hour
• week - last 7 days, bucketed by day
• month - last 30 days, bucketed by day (default)
• all - all time, bucketed by month

Response format:

{
  "usage": [
    {
      "bucket": "2026-03-18",
      "model": "gpt-4",
      "user_id": "abc-123",
      "user_name": "Alice",
      "prompt_tokens": 1500,
      "completion_tokens": 800,
      "total_tokens": 2300,
      "request_count": 12
    }
  ],
  "totals": {
    "prompt_tokens": 1500,
    "completion_tokens": 800,
    "total_tokens": 2300,
    "request_count": 12
  }
}

Usage Dashboard

The web UI Usage page provides:

• Period selector - switch between day, week, month, and all-time views
• Summary cards - total requests, prompt tokens, completion tokens, total tokens
• By Model table - per-model breakdown with visual usage bars
• By User table (admin only) - per-user breakdown across all models
• Sources tab - per-API-key and per-source breakdown (described below)

Per-API-key Breakdown

The Sources tab on the Usage page surfaces a third dimension of the same data: traffic broken down by API key and by request source. Three source classes are tracked:

• API key - request authenticated with a named user API key (Authorization: Bearer lai-..., x-api-key, or token cookie). Each key shows up with its label (snapshotted at write time, so revoked keys still display the original name).
• Web UI - request authenticated with a browser session cookie.
• Legacy - request authenticated with an env-configured LOCALAI_API_KEY. Visible to admins only.

The Sources tab is visible to every authenticated user. Non-admins see only their own keys plus their own Web UI traffic (legacy is filtered server-side). Admins see every key from every user.

The tab is laid out as:

• A source mix ribbon showing the percentage split across the three classes.
• A top-N + Other stacked time chart (top 7 sources by total tokens; the rest roll up).
• A searchable, sortable table of every key plus the Web UI and Legacy pseudo-rows. Click a row to filter the chart to that source.

Endpoints

Both endpoints accept the same period parameter (day, week, month, all) as /api/auth/usage.

# Your own per-source usage for the last week
curl "http://localhost:8080/api/auth/usage/sources?period=week" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <key>"

# Admin: filter to a single API key across all users
curl "http://localhost:8080/api/auth/admin/usage/sources?period=month&api_key_id=<key-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

Response shape:

{
  "buckets": [
    { "bucket": "2026-05-19", "source": "apikey",
      "api_key_id": "uuid", "api_key_name": "ci-runner",
      "total_tokens": 20000, "request_count": 142, "...": "..." },
    { "bucket": "2026-05-19", "source": "web",
      "total_tokens": 300, "request_count": 11, "...": "..." }
  ],
  "totals": {
    "by_source": {
      "apikey": { "tokens": 1234567, "requests": 8420 },
      "web":    { "tokens":   92000, "requests":   211 }
    },
    "by_key": [
      { "api_key_id": "uuid", "api_key_name": "ci-runner",
        "tokens": 2100000, "requests": 8420,
        "last_used": "2026-05-20T12:34:56Z" }
    ],
    "grand_total": { "tokens": 1334777, "requests": 8645 }
  },
  "truncated": false
}

The by_key list is server-sorted by tokens descending and capped at 200 entries. When more keys would qualify, the response sets "truncated": true so the UI can show a notice.

Migration of pre-feature data

Usage rows recorded before this feature have no source column. On startup, InitDB backfills them as legacy when the synthetic legacy-api-key user_id was used, and web for everything else. The migration is idempotent; existing aggregations remain correct after the upgrade.

Combining Auth Modes

Legacy API keys and user authentication can be used simultaneously. When both are configured:

1. User sessions and user API keys are checked first
2. Legacy API keys are checked as fallback - they grant admin-level access
3. This allows a gradual migration from shared API keys to per-user accounts

Build Requirements

User authentication needs no build tag and no C compiler. The SQLite database is opened with a pure-Go driver, so a binary built with CGO_ENABLED=0 and no tags (the release binaries) can keep accounts in a SQLite file, and the same driver serves the chats and their files. PostgreSQL is chosen by the postgres:// form of the database URL, as before.

go build ./cmd/local-ai

The auth build tag is only left on some tests. The pure-Go driver reads and writes the file format of SQLite, so an existing database.db opens as it is.