Passkeys in Django: the best of all possible worlds
2025-04-24 , Main hall

Secure, accessible, usable — pick any three.

Why compromise when you can have it all? I'll show how easy it is to integrate support for passkeys (Face ID, fingerprint scans, etc.) into your Django app in almost no time at all.


A passkey is a user-friendly implementation of WebAuth. With just a bit of code, you can add passkeys to your Django site and support:

  • FaceID and fingerprint scans through an iCloud keychain
  • Google Password Manager
  • Windows Hello
  • Hardware devices such as Yubikeys

I won't focus on the technical details, only the important bits:

  1. Why you should implement passkeys.
  2. What you should be aware of if you do implement them.
  3. One way to implement them in Django.
  4. A short dive into some of the issues we faced and how we resolved them.
  5. My take on the future of passkeys in Django.

Audience Level

Beginner

Topics

HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Security

I'm Tom, current board secretary, accessibility team member, Discord admin, Django contributor, and probably other things I've forgotten.

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