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feat: per-issuer session cache — stop re-running the full auth flow (popup included) on every 401 - #11

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feat/dpop-session-cache
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feat: per-issuer session cache — stop re-running the full auth flow (popup included) on every 401#11
jeswr wants to merge 2 commits into
mainfrom
feat/dpop-session-cache

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@jeswr

@jeswr jeswr commented Jun 11, 2026

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Problem

DPoPTokenProvider.upgrade() runs the entire flow on every 401: discovery, dynamic client registration, a fresh DPoP key, and a new authorization popup. In a real app (observed live with a Solid pod browser against a Solid-OIDC broker) that means:

  • every authenticated request that races another one opens its own popup;
  • nothing is remembered between requests, so users keep being prompted;
  • the token (and its refresh_token, if any) is dropped on the floor after a single request.

Change

DPoPTokenProvider now keeps a single-flight, per-issuer session cache:

  • concurrent 401 upgrades share one authorization-code flow → one popup;
  • later upgrades reuse the established access token and only sign a fresh per-request DPoP proof;
  • expires_in is tracked (with 30 s skew); an expired session re-runs the flow, which stays silent while the IdP cookie lives thanks to the existing prompt=none-first behaviour;
  • a failed flow is not cached, so the next request retries;
  • the shared flow work is provider-owned rather than tied to one request's AbortSignal — aborting one request no longer cancels the login other concurrent upgrades are waiting on (small behaviour change, called out deliberately).

Public API is unchanged.

Tests

The repo had no test runner, so this adds a minimal vitest setup (npm test) with a compact in-memory authorization server (discovery + JWKS + registration + token endpoint, ES256-signed ID tokens) — 6 tests covering token attachment, single-flight, reuse, per-request proofs, expiry re-auth, and failed-flow retry.

  • npm run build (tsc): clean
  • npm test: 6/6 passing
  • Verified live: Playwright-driven login against a deployed pod manager + Solid-OIDC broker (https://app.solid-test.jeswr.org) — one popup per session, repeat reads reuse the token.

Stacked work: refresh-token support builds on this cache in a follow-up PR.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Pull request overview

This PR introduces a per-issuer, single-flight session cache inside DPoPTokenProvider to avoid re-running the full authorization-code flow (including popups) on every 401, and adds a new Vitest-based test harness to validate the new behavior.

Changes:

  • Cache authentication sessions per issuer so concurrent upgrades share one auth flow and later upgrades reuse the access token until expiry.
  • Track token expiry (expires_in with skew) to trigger re-auth when needed, while still generating a fresh DPoP proof per request.
  • Add a minimal in-memory OIDC/OAuth AS plus Vitest tests covering single-flight, reuse, expiry re-auth, and failed-flow retry.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File Description
src/DPoPTokenProvider.ts Adds per-issuer single-flight session caching and expiry-based renewal for DPoP upgrades.
test/fakeAuthorizationServer.ts Introduces an in-memory discovery/JWKS/registration/token endpoint to support deterministic unit tests.
test/DPoPTokenProvider.test.ts Adds Vitest coverage for caching/reuse/expiry and failure retry behavior.
package.json Adds vitest and a npm test script to run the new unit tests.

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Comment thread src/DPoPTokenProvider.ts
Comment thread test/fakeAuthorizationServer.ts Outdated
Comment thread test/fakeAuthorizationServer.ts
jeswr and others added 2 commits July 29, 2026 11:16
Previously every 401 re-ran the entire flow — discovery, dynamic client
registration, a fresh DPoP key, and a new authorization popup — so each
authenticated request could prompt the user again.

DPoPTokenProvider now keeps a single-flight per-issuer session cache:

- concurrent 401 upgrades share one authorization-code flow (one popup);
- later upgrades reuse the established access token, signing a fresh
  DPoP proof per request;
- the token's reported `expires_in` is tracked (with 30 s skew) and an
  expired session re-runs the flow — silently while the IdP cookie
  lives, thanks to the existing `prompt=none`-first behaviour;
- a failed flow is not cached, so the next request can retry;
- shared flow work is no longer tied to a single request's AbortSignal
  (aborting one request must not cancel the login that other concurrent
  upgrades are waiting on).

The public API is unchanged.

Also adds a minimal vitest setup (the repo had no test runner) with a
compact in-memory authorization server covering the cache behaviour.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Review follow-ups: discovery now advertises the refresh_token grant
exactly when the server issues refresh tokens; the refresh-token grant
is rejected (unsupported_grant_type) when refresh tokens are disabled;
and a non-rotating server keeps the presented token active without
issuing a replacement (RFC 6749 §6) instead of silently rotating.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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Is there a library by @panva which does this out of the box rather than needing to entirely re-define our own authorisation server here?

Comment thread src/DPoPTokenProvider.ts
Comment on lines +31 to +36
/**
* Single-flight session cache per issuer: concurrent upgrades share one
* authorization-code flow (one popup), and later upgrades reuse the
* established token until it expires instead of re-running the flow.
*/
readonly #sessions = new Map<string, Promise<IssuerSession>>()

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Rather than caching being in-memory only; we should have configurable CacheProviders to enable context specific caching including:

  • Having session in memory (as is the case here)
  • Saving session, or refresh tokens in browser storage
  • In vscode, saving things to their secrets API

Comment thread src/DPoPTokenProvider.ts
* establishing it when absent. A failed flow is not cached, so the next
* upgrade retries.
*/
async #session(issuer: URL): Promise<IssuerSession> {

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We need to think about whether we always want to be caching by issuer - I am not sure that this will always be the case.

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2 participants