cheqd Studio

ℹ️ Overview

cheqd Studio (formerly known as Credential Service) enables users to consume cheqd's identity functionality, such as DIDs, Trust Registries, Status Lists, Credential Payments and DID-Linked Resources over REST API. This enables users to integrate cheqd's functionality into existing applications or create a full end-to-end trusted ecosystem from the ground up.

📖 Usage

We run hosted endpoints for this package (in case you don't want to run it yourself) which have Swagger / OpenAPI definition endpoints that list all of the APIs and how they work.

The Swagger API definition pages are:

• Production / Stable Release APIs
• Staging / Development Release APIs

🔧 Configuration

The application allows configuring the following parameters using environment variables.

Core configuration

Events tracking

1. LOG_LEVEL: specifies log level, like 'trace', 'debug', 'info', 'warn' or 'error';

Network API endpoints

1. MAINNET_RPC_URL: RPC endpoint for cheqd mainnet (Default: https://rpc.cheqd.net:443).
2. TESTNET_RPC_URL: RPC endpoint for cheqd testnet (Default: https://rpc.cheqd.network:443).
3. RESOLVER_URL: API endpoint for a DID Resolver endpoint that supports did:cheqd (Default: https://resolver.cheqd.net/1.0/identifiers/).
4. APPLICATION_BASE_URL: URL of the application (external domain name).
5. CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS: CORS allowed origins used in the app (optional). (Default: APPLICATION_BASE_URL).

Veramo KMS Database

The application supports two modes in which keys are managed: either just storing them in-memory while a container is running, or persisting them in a PostgresSQL database with Veramo SDK. Using an external Postgres database allows for "custodian" mode where identity and cheqd/Cosmos keys can be offloaded by client applications to be stored in the database.

By default, ENABLE_EXTERNAL_DB is set to off/false. To enable external Veramo KMS database, set ENABLE_EXTERNAL_DB to true, then define below environment variables in .env file:

1. EXTERNAL_DB_CONNECTION_URL: PostgreSQL database connection URL, e.g. postgres://<user>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<database>.
2. EXTERNAL_DB_ENCRYPTION_KEY: Secret key used to encrypt the Veramo key-specific database tables. This adds a layer of protection by not storing the database in plaintext.
3. EXTERNAL_DB_CERTIFICATE: Custom CA certificate required to connect to the database (optional).

API Authentication using LogTo

By default, the application has API authentication disabled (which can be changed in configuration). If, however, you'd like to run the app with API authentication features, the following variables need to be configured.

We use a self-hosted version of LogTo, which supports OpenID Connect. Theoretically, these values could also be replaced with LogTo Cloud or any other OpenID Connect identity provider.

By default, ENABLE_AUTHENTICATION is set to off/false. To enable external Veramo KMS database, set ENABLE_AUTHENTICATION to true, then define below environment variables in .env file:

1. Endpoints
   1. LOGTO_ENDPOINT: API endpoint for LogTo server
   2. LOGTO_DEFAULT_RESOURCE_URL: Root of API resources in this application to be guarded. (Default: http://localhost:3000/ on localhost.)
   3. LOGTO_MANAGEMENT_API: URL of management API for LogTo. This is typically static within self-hosted LogTo applications and is not meant to be a resolvable URL. (Default: https://default.logto.app/api)
2. User-facing APIs
   1. LOGTO_APP_ID: Application ID for the cheqd Studio application in LogTo. This can be set up as type "Traditional Web"
   2. LOGTO_APP_SECRET: Application secret associated with App ID above.
3. Machine-to-machine backend APIs
   1. LOGTO_M2M_APP_ID: Application ID for machine-to-machine application in LogTo. This is used for elevated management APIs within LogTo.
   2. LOGTO_M2M_APP_SECRET: Application secret
4. Default role update using LogTo webhooks: LogTo supports webhooks to fire of requests to an API when it detects certain actions/changes. If you want to automatically assign a role to users, a webhook is recommended to be setup for firing off whenever there's a new account created, or a new sign-in.
   1. LOGTO_DEFAULT_ROLE_ID: LogTo Role ID for the default role to put new users into.
   2. LOGTO_WEBHOOK_SECRET: Webhook secret to authenticate incoming webhook requests from LogTo.
5. Miscellaneous
   1. COOKIE_SECRET: Secret for cookie encryption.
   2. API_KEY_EXPIRATION (optional): Expiration time for API keys in days. (Default 30 days)

Faucet settings

This section describes bootstrapping things for newcomers accounts. If it's enabled the CredentialService auto-populates some tokens on the testnet for making the process simpler.

1. ENABLE_ACCOUNT_TOPUP: Enable/disable such functionality (false by default)
2. FAUCET_URI: Faucet service API endpoint (Default: https://faucet-api.cheqd.network/credit)
3. TESTNET_MINIMUM_BALANCE: Minimum balance on account before it is automatically topped up from the faucet. This value should be expressed as an integer in CHEQ tokens, which will then be converted in the background to ncheq denomination. Account balance check is carried out on every account creation/login. (Default: 10,000 CHEQ testnet tokens)

Stripe integration

The application supports Stripe integration for payment processing.

1. STRIPE_ENABLED - Enable/disable Stripe integration (false by default)
2. STRIPE_SECRET_KEY - Secret key for Stripe API. Please, keep it secret on deploying
3. STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY - Publishable key for Stripe API.
4. STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET - Secret for Stripe Webhook.

3rd Party Connectors

The app supports 3rd party connectors for credential storage and delivery.

Verida

The app's Verida Network connector can be enabled to deliver generated credentials to Verida Wallet.

By default, ENABLE_VERIDA_CONNECTOR is set to off/false. To enable external Veramo KMS database, set ENABLE_VERIDA_CONNECTOR to true, then define below environment variables in .env file:

1. VERIDA_PRIVATE_KEY: Secret key for Verida Network API.
2. POLYGON_PRIVATE_KEY: Secret key for Polygon Network.

🧑‍💻🛠 Developer Guide

Run as standalone application using Docker Compose

If you want to run the application without any external databases or dependent services, we provide a Docker Compose file to spin up a standalone service.

docker compose -f docker/no-external-db/docker-compose-no-db.yml up --detach

This standalone service uses an in-memory database with no persistence, and therefore is recommended only if you're managing key/secret storage separately.

The no-db.env file in the same folder contains all the environment variables necessary to configure the service. (See section Configuration above.)

Run with external Key Management System (KMS) and/or authentication service using Docker Compose

Construct the postgres URL and configure the env variables mentioned above.

Spinning up a Docker container from the pre-built studio Docker image on Github is as simple as the command below:

Configure PostgreSQL database

Configure the environment variables in the postgres.env file:

1. POSTGRES_USER: Username for Postgres database
2. POSTGRES_PASSWORD: Password for Postgres database
3. POSTGRES_MULTIPLE_DATABASES: Database names for multiple databases in the same cluster, e.g.: "app,logto". This sets up multiple databases in the same cluster, which can be used independently for External Veramo KMS or LogTo service.

Then, make the Postgres initialisation scripts executable:

chmod +x docker/with-external-db/pg-init-scripts/create-multiple-postgresql-databases.sh

Start LogTo service

Configure the environment variables in the logto.env file with the settings described in section above.

Then, run the LogTo service to configure the LogTo application API resources, applications, sign-in experiences, roles etc using Docker Compose:

docker compose -f docker/with-external-db/docker-compose-with-db.yml --profile logto up --detach

Configuring LogTo is outside the scope of this guide, and we recommend reading LogTo documentation to familiarise yourself.

Start studio app

Configure the environment variables in the with-db.env file with the settings described in section above. Depending on whether you are using external Veramo KMS only, LogTo only, or both you will need to have previously provisioned these services as there are environment variables in this file that originate from Postgres/LogTo.

Then, start the service using Docker Compose:

docker compose -f docker/with-external-db/docker-compose-with-db.yml up --detach

Running app or LogTo migrations

When upgrading either the external Veramo KMS or LogTo, you might need to run migrations for the underlying databases.

You can run just the migration scripts using Docker Compose profiles defined in the Compose file.

For example, to run cheqd Studio app migrations on an existing Postgres database (for external Veramo KMS):

docker compose -f docker/with-external-db/docker-compose-with-db.yml --profile app-setup up --detach

Or to run LogTo migrations on an existing Postgres database:

docker compose -f docker/with-external-db/docker-compose-with-db.yml --profile logto-setup up --detach

Build using Docker

To build your own image using Docker, use the Dockerfile provided.

docker build --file docker/Dockerfile --target runner . --tag studio:local

🐞 Bug reports & 🤔 feature requests

If you notice anything not behaving how you expected, or would like to make a suggestion / request for a new feature, please create a new issue and let us know.

💬 Community

Our Discord server is our primary chat channel for the open-source community, software developers, and node operators.

Please reach out to us there for discussions, help, and feedback on the project.

🙋 Find us elsewhere