Login to Galaxy with Custos

This page explains how to use this feature, for admin-specific docs, please refer to the configuration page.

What is Custos and when should I use it?

Custos allows you to login to Galaxy without using a Galaxy username and password but instead use one of your other online identities, such as Google. Custos is the recommended way to login to Galaxy. However, before you proceed, read the rest of this page.

Link an existing Galaxy account

If you already have a Galaxy account with a username and password and want to transition to using an external identity, you must first link the existing Galaxy account to the desired external identity.

1. Sign in to Galaxy using your existing username and password;
2. Proceed to the User -> Preferences -> Manage Third-Party Identities page;

3. Click on the Sign in with Custos button and follow through to sign in using your desired identity provider. In the process, you will be redirected to the identity provider login page before returning to Galaxy.

   

Once you have completed these steps, any identity provider linked to your account will be listed on the user preferences page. From now on you can sign in to Galaxy using either the user name and password or the external identity (as shown below).

Sign in to Galaxy via Custos

Regardless if your are logging in for the first time or after you have linked your existing Galaxy account to an external identity, use the following steps to sign in.

Head to the Galaxy login page, select the desired identity provider from the drop down menu, and click Sign in with Custos. You will be redirected to the identity provider's login page and, after authenticating, you will automatically return to Galaxy as a logged in user.

1. Click on the Login or Register button:

   

2. Choose an identity provider and click the Sign in with Custos button. You will then be redirected to the selected identity provider's login screen where you can login using your credentials. Having logged in the selected institution, you will be redirected back to Galaxy and you will be logged in to Galaxy with your external identity.

   

   **NOTE:**

    If this login option is not displayed, then either OIDC is
    not enabled on the instance of Galaxy you are using, or its Custos
    backend is not configured. Regardless, you would need to contact the
    administrator of that Galaxy instance to enable it.
   

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Disconnect an account from Galaxy

If you have used an external identity to login to Galaxy and would like to disconnect it, you can do so from the User -> Preferences -> Third-party Identity Management page.

Keep in mind that once disconnected, you will not be able to sign in using that identity. At a minimum, you should know (or reset) your password before disconnecting.

To disconnect an identity, simply click the Disconnect Custos button from the Third-party identity management preferences page.

About Custos

Custos is an NSF-funded project, backed by open source software that provides science gateways such as Galaxy with single sign-on, group management, and management of secrets such as access keys and OAuth2 access tokens. With Galaxy, Custos allows users to login to Galaxy without having to (explicitly) create a Galaxy user account. When logging in via Custos, there are more than 3,000 available Identity Providers (IdPs), including many academic institutions from around the world, allowing users to link their institutional identities with a Galaxy account.