User Tasks in the Kernel

The open-source LittleHorse Kernel natively supports User Tasks. However, the LittleHorse Kernel does not support the concept of user identity as it would require adding significant amounts of complexity and external dependencies to the open-source project.

Currently, user_id and user_group are simply just string identifiers inside of the LittleHorse Kernel. The LittleHorse Kernel itself does not have any built-in concept of user management, authentication, or authorization. It does not know who "John Doe" is, or which people belong to the "loan-officers" group.

This leads to the natural need to have some type of authorization layer in between the Kernel and your IdP. This is what the Pony ID is built to do.

Pony ID is a simple HTTP server that sits in between the LittleHorse Kernel and your IdP. It is responsible for:

• Authorizing the user
• Keeping track of which user_id and user_group belong to which person and / or group.

This ultimately allows authenticated users that are already in your IdP to be able to complete User Tasks. They wont even know that it is a LittleHorse User Task.