Hey everyone!
I got tired of spinning up heavy auth stacks that gobble up hundreds of MBs of RAM and require separate database containers just to get simple Single Sign-On for a few homelab services. So, I built Zen IdP.
It’s a lightweight OpenID Connect provider written in Go that runs as a single binary or container.
What it is: A simple OIDC provider designed for local services and internal tools where users sign in using just their username and a TOTP code (no user passwords stored or managed).
What it isn’t: A heavy enterprise identity platform with self-signup, password resets, or LDAP sync. It isn’t trying to replace Keycloak or Authentik for complex enterprise environments.
Key homelab-friendly features:
- Identity as Code: Users, applications, and custom claims are declared entirely in YAML files.
- Zero database servers: Disposable session state lives in a local SQLite file. If you lose or wipe the DB, identity data isn’t lost—users just sign in again with their same TOTP codes.
- CI/CD validation: Includes a
validate-configcommand to test your YAML files in Git workflows before deploying. - Ready-to-run examples: The repo includes Docker Compose setups for Grafana, OAuth2 Proxy, Gatus, OliveTin, and Zot out of the box.
Watch a 1-minute video demo (using Grafana as an example OIDC client)
A quick note on transparency: English is not my native language, so I used AI to help polish the docs and post text. I also used AI assistance to implement some features, but every line of code was designed, supervised, and tested by me.
It’s MIT licensed: https://github.com/varavelio/zen-idp
I’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts, or any questions about integrating it into your setup!
How much RAM does this use? And how is it different from Tinyauth or even Authelia?
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