Auth vs Personalization

Mintlify offers both Authentication and Personalization. For the most part, Authentication is just Personalization + privacy. However, there are some key differences that are important to be aware of, from most important to least:

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Security Guarantees

Authentication is a fully-fledged private documentation solution. Every aspect of your docs, including page content, images, search results, and AI chat features, are completely inaccessible to unauthenticated users.

Personalization, on the other hand, offers no security guarantees for your documentation content. All page content, images, search results, and AI chat features can be accessed by the public. Even if you are using the hidden pages feature of Personalization, a motivated attacker would still be able to access the content of a hidden page.

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Handshake Methods

Due to the difference in security requirements for Authentication and Personalization, different handshake methods are available for each. Both methods offer a JWT and OAuth Handshake, although the setup steps are slightly different.

Authentication offers two additional Handshake methods:

• Password Handshake, which protects your website with a single configurable global password.

• Mintlify Dashboard Handshake, which will allow users to view your documentation only if they have access to your dashboard.

Personalization offers one additional Handshake method:

• Shared Session Handshake, a super simple method which only requires setting up a single endpoint that returns data for already-authenticated users.