Netlify Identity

This handles Netlify's built-in user management: signups, logins, password recovery, OAuth, and role-based access control. It's a hard requirement to use @netlify/identity, not the deprecated widget or gotrue-js libraries. The API is headless and works in both browser and server contexts, which matters if you're protecting Netlify Functions or working in SSR frameworks. One friction point: it doesn't work with netlify dev yet, so you'll need to deploy preview builds to test auth flows. Registration is open by default, and OAuth providers like Google and GitHub need to be toggled on in project settings before they'll work.

skills.sh installs: 3.2K
GitHub stars: 51
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add netlify/context-and-tools --skill netlify-identity --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Netlify Identity

Use @netlify/identity (npm). For new projects it replaces the legacy netlify-identity-widget and gotrue-js. Do not reach for those.

npm install @netlify/identity

Framework examples (Next.js/Astro/Remix/SvelteKit) and the full API reference are in the @netlify/identity README on npm.

Identity does not run under netlify dev. Test all auth flows on a deploy. Deploy Previews work. Local dev will not complete signup/login/OAuth.

Identity config is dashboard-only. There is no public API. Never curl api.netlify.com to flip or read Identity settings, never read tokens from local Netlify config, and never probe undocumented endpoints. Enable and configure Identity at https://app.netlify.com/projects/{site_name}/identity.

Never build a from-scratch OAuth flow alongside Identity. No provider app registration in code, no client_id/secret in source, and no custom callback token exchange. Use oauthLogin() + handleAuthCallback(). Raw OAuth beside Identity is the most common source of rework.