# Integrating Amazon Cognito authentication and authorization with web and mobile apps
<a name="cognito-integrate-apps"></a>

Implementation of Amazon Cognito is a mix of AWS Management Console or AWS SDK administrative tools, and SDK libraries in applications. The Amazon Cognito console is the visual interface for setup and management of your Amazon Cognito user pools and identity pools.

The lowest-effort integration you can create with Amazon Cognito user pools is with [managed login](cognito-terms.md#terms-managedlogin). Managed login is a ready-to-use web-based sign-in application for quick testing and deployment of Amazon Cognito user pools. User pool authentication with managed login requires OpenID Connect (OIDC) libraries that direct users to hosted sign-in pages. In this series of user-interactive and redirect web endpoints, Amazon Cognito handles the flow of authentication, including third-party sign-in, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and choosing an authentication flow. Your application only has to process the authentication outcome that Amazon Cognito returns in the response.

You can also add an AWS SDK to your application, custom-build authentication interfaces, and invoke API operations for authentication and authorization of your users. [AWS Amplify](https://docs.amplify.aws/) is an AWS service for building full-stack applications, with Amazon Cognito authentication in the back end.

For example, your app might invoke managed login for user sign-in, then call the token endpoint from your app code to exchange your user's authorization code for tokens. Then your app must interpret and store your user's tokens, and present them in the appropriate context for authentication and authorization. Amplify adds guided integration tools with built-in functions for these processes.

You can also build your Amazon Cognito resources entirely in code. Identity pools don't have the same managed authentication options as user pools—for access to AWS credentials in your applications, implement identity pools operations in imported SDK modules. To get started with your own custom-built application code, visit the Amazon Cognito [code examples](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/service_code_examples.html) for [AWS SDKs](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/tools/). For integration with the Amazon Cognito as an OpenID Connect identity provider, use [OpenID Connect developer tools](https://openid.net/certified-open-id-developer-tools/).

Before you use Amazon Cognito authentication and authorization, choose an app platform and prepare your code to integrate with the service. For available platforms for AWS SDKs, see [Authentication with AWS SDKs](#amazon-cognito-authentication-with-sdks). The AWS CLI is a command-line SDK for Amazon Cognito and other AWS services, and is a valuable place to begin to familiarize yourself with Amazon Cognito API operations and their syntax.

**Note**  
Some components of Amazon Cognito can be configured only with the API. For example, you can only set a user pool [custom SMS or email sender](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/user-pool-lambda-custom-sender-triggers.html) Lambda trigger with a request that updates the `LambdaConfig` property of the [UserPool](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_UserPoolType.html) class in a [CreateUserPool](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_CreateUserPool.html) or [UpdateUserPool](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_UpdateUserPool.html) API request.

The Amazon Cognito user pools API shares its namespace with several classes of API operations. One class configures user pools and their processes, identity providers and users. Another includes unauthenticated operations for your users in a public client to sign in, sign out, and manage their profiles. The final class of API operations performs user operations that you authorize with your own AWS credentials in a confidential server-side client. You must know your intended app architecture before you begin to implement app code. For more information, see [Understanding API, OIDC, and managed login pages authentication](authentication-flows-public-server-side.md#user-pools-API-operations).

**Topics**
+ [Authentication with AWS Amplify](#cognito-integrate-apps-amplify)
+ [Authentication with AWS SDKs](#amazon-cognito-authentication-with-sdks)
+ [How authentication works with Amazon Cognito](cognito-how-to-authenticate.md)
+ [Using this service with an AWS SDK](sdk-general-information-section.md)
+ [Authorization with Amazon Verified Permissions](amazon-cognito-authorization-with-avp.md)

## Authentication with AWS Amplify
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AWS Amplify is a complete solution for building web and mobile applications. With Amplify, you can connect to existing resources with the Amplify libraries, or you can create and configure new resources with the Amplify command line interface (CLI). Amplify also has connected UI components like [Authenticator](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/react/connected-components/authenticator) for setup and customization of the sign-in and sign-up experience in your app.

To use Amplify authentication features in your front-end app, see the following documentation by platform.
+ [Amplify authentication for React](https://docs.amplify.aws/react/start/)
+ [Amplify authentication for React Native](https://docs.amplify.aws/react-native/start/)
+ [Amplify authentication for Swift (iOS)](https://docs.amplify.aws/swift/start/)
+ [Amplify authentication for Android](https://docs.amplify.aws/android/start/)
+ [Amplify authentication for Flutter](https://docs.amplify.aws/flutter/start/)

The Amplify libraries are open source and are available on [GitHub](https://github.com/aws-amplify). To learn more about how Amplify Auth implements Amazon Cognito authentication, visit the following libraries.
+ [amplify-js](https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-js/tree/main/packages/auth)
+ [amplify-swift](https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-swift/tree/main/Amplify/Categories/Auth)
+ [amplify-flutter](https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-flutter/tree/main/packages/auth)
+ [amplify-android](https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-android/tree/main/aws-auth-cognito)

### Creating a user interface (UI) with Amplify
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[User pool managed login](cognito-user-pools-managed-login.md) can fulfill the essential needs of an authentication front-end for a web or mobile app. To customize your user interface (UI) beyond the parameters that managed login accommodates, custom-build an application. [Amplify UI](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/) is a customizable collection of front-end components in a variety of languages.

![\[A screenshot of an example Amplify Authenticator application.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/images/amplify-authenticator-ui.png)


To get started with your custom authentication component, visit the following documentation for the Authenticator component.
+ [Authenticator for Android](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/android/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for Angular](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/angular/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for Flutter](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/flutter/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for React](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/react/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for React Native](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/react-native/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for Swift](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/swift/connected-components/authenticator)
+ [Authenticator for Vue](https://ui.docs.amplify.aws/vue/connected-components/authenticator)

## Authentication with AWS SDKs
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To use a secure backend to build your own identity microservice that interacts with Amazon Cognito, connect to the Amazon Cognito user pools and Amazon Cognito identity pools API with an AWS SDK in the language of your choice.

For details on each API operation, see the [Amazon Cognito user pools API Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_Operations.html) and the [Amazon Cognito API Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognitoidentity/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html). These documents contain [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_InitiateAuth.html#API_InitiateAuth_SeeAlso](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito-user-identity-pools/latest/APIReference/API_InitiateAuth.html#API_InitiateAuth_SeeAlso) sections with resources for using a variety of SDKs in supported platforms.
+ [AWS Command Line Interface](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/cognito-idp/index.html#cli-aws-cognito-idp)
+ [AWS SDK for .NET](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkfornet/v3/apidocs/items/CognitoIdentityProvider/TCognitoIdentityProviderClient.html)
+ [AWS SDK for C\$1\$1](https://sdk.amazonaws.com/cpp/api/LATEST/aws-cpp-sdk-cognito-idp/html/class_aws_1_1_cognito_identity_provider_1_1_cognito_identity_provider_client.html)
+ [AWS SDK for Go](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-go/api/service/cognitoidentityprovider/#CognitoIdentityProvider)
+ [AWS SDK for Java V2](https://sdk.amazonaws.com/java/api/latest/software/amazon/awssdk/services/cognitoidentityprovider/CognitoIdentityProviderClient.html)
+ [AWS SDK for JavaScript](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/latest/AWS/CognitoIdentityServiceProvider.html)
+ [AWS SDK for PHP V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-sdk-php/v3/api/class-Aws.CognitoIdentityProvider.CognitoIdentityProviderClient.html)
+ [AWS SDK for Python](https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/cognito-idp.html)
+ [AWS SDK for Ruby V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-ruby/v3/api/Aws/CognitoIdentityProvider/Client.html)