> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.lenses.io/latest/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.lenses.io/latest/deployment/configuration/authentication/sso-and-saml/overview.md).

# Overview

This page gives an overview of SSO & SAML for authentication with Lenses.

## Users

Control of how user create with SSO is determined by the[ SSO User Creation Mode](/latest/deployment/configuration/hq.md#ssousercreationmode). There are two modes:

1. Manual
2. SSO

With **manual** mode, only users that pre-created in HQ can login.

With **sso** mode, users that do not already exists are created and logged in.

## Group Mapping

Control of how a user's group membership should be handled in relation to SSO is determined by the [SSO Group Membership Mode](/latest/deployment/configuration/hq.md#ssogroupmembershipmode). There are two modes:

1. Manual
2. SSO

With the **manual** mode, the information about the group membership returned from an Identity Provider will not be used and a user will only be a member of groups that were explicitly assigned to them in HQ.

With the **sso** mode, group information from Identity Provider (IdP) will be used. On login, a user's group membership is set to the groups listed in the IdP.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Groups that do not exist in HQ are ignored.
{% endhint %}

SAML configuration is defined in the **config.yaml** provided to HQ. For more information on the configuration options see [here](/latest/deployment/configuration/hq.md#samlconfig).

{% code title="config.yaml" %}

```yaml
http:
  saml:
    metadata: |-
```

{% endcode %}


---

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