External APIs with OIDC
With the OIDC-conformant pipeline, you should define applications and APIs (resources) as separate Auth0 entities. Benefits include:
Simpler API integration: APIs are no longer tied to applications that call them.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) integration scenarios: Applications can authenticate as themselves (instead of acting on behalf of a user) to programmatically and securely get an Access Token.
Architecture
Suggested OIDC-conformant solutions for different scenarios include:
Multiple applications calling an API under a single client ID: Represent each application with a single Auth0 application, each of which can interact with the API on which the applications depend.
Exchange tokens obtained by one application for tokens for a different application with delegation: Use a multi-application solution, with each application authenticating to the same resource server.
Applications do not depend on external APIs; only used to authenticate users: You do not need to define an API as long as ID tokens are:
Processed only by the application.
Not sent to any external services.