# Build a Flask App with Okta for Secure OIDC Login and Authorized API Calls

DevFeed: [Build a Flask App with Okta for Secure OIDC Login and Authorized API Calls](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/build-a-flask-app-with-okta-for-secure-oidc-login-and-authorized-api-calls-15973.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://developer.okta.com/blog/2026/07/28/flask-oauth-web-app>)

Author: Akanksha Bhasin

Published: 2026-07-28T05:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Okta Developer](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/okta-developer.md>)

Topics: [Flask](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/flask.md>), [OpenID connect (OIDC)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/oidc.md>), [Tutorial](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tutorial.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>), [Authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authentication.md>), [Authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authorization.md>), [OAuth 2.0](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/oauth2.md>), [Python](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/python.md>), [web applications](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-applications.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authentication.md>), [authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authorization.md>), [flask](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/flask.md>), [oauth](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/oauth.md>), [oauth-2-0](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/oauth-2-0.md>), [oidc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/oidc.md>), [pkce](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pkce.md>), [python](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/python.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [tutorial](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tutorial.md>), [web-app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-app.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains how to build a Flask dashboard that uses Okta OpenID Connect for user sign-in and OAuth 2.0 access tokens to call a protected backend API. It also covers PKCE, custom scopes, self-service registration, and validating scopes to control API responses.

## Source excerpt

Python syntax and the flexibility of the Flask microframework make it a popular choice for quickly building web applications. While Flask provides the essentials to get you started, you'll need to tackle two critical pieces yourself: secure user authentication and authorization for your backend services. After all, how do you securely sign users into your application? And once they're signed in, how does your app fetch data from a backend service that only serves authorized requests? This tutorial shows you how to solve both. You'll build a Flask dashboard app that signs users in with Okta using OpenID Connect (OIDC). Once signed in, the app uses the resulting OAuth 2.0 access token to call a separate backend API that responds only to authorized requests. In this common pattern, a web app needs to fetch data from a protected backend service. You'll use Authlib, an OIDC client library, to configure the Authorization Code flow with Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE) automatically. You'll also learn how to add a custom scope to the access token and validate it on the backend to control what data the API returns. Check out the complete source code on GitHub and get started without setting it up from scratch. Table of Contents Build a Flask app with OIDC authentication Create an app integration in the Okta Admin Console Enable self-service user registration Add secure user login to a Flask application with Okta Create a basic Flask web application Configure Flask environment variables Implement the OIDC authentication logic Run the Flask OAuth web app Call a protected API with OAuth scoped tokens Build a protected users API Extend the Flask app to interact with the resource server Update the Flask UI to display protected data Test the protected API integration Learn more about OAuth and OIDC Build a Flask app with OIDC authentication In this tutorial, you'll build a simple dashboard application and learn how to: Securely sign users in to view their profile information us