ARIA Shield (formerly BFF)

ARIA Shield (formerly BFF) is the session and security gateway for our SPAs and AI providers:

• Terminates OAuth in the backend (tokens never reach the browser)
• Issues/validates httpOnly session cookies and CSRF tokens
• Authorizes each request via the PDP (AuthZEN) before proxying
• Proxies canonical /api/... routes to backend services
• Enforces stream‑time caps and budgets (402 semantics) for provider streaming

Start here:

• BFF Design Pattern: problem, how it works, when to use → Explanations / Backend‑for‑Frontend (BFF) Design Pattern
• Overview: what the BFF is and isn’t → Explanations / BFF for SPAs — How It Works
• Executive overview: business value and visuals → Explanations / BFF — Executive Overview
• Visual Guide: presentable diagrams of flows and routing → Explanations / BFF Visual Guide
• SPA Golden Path: wire a React app to the BFF → Tutorials / SPA Golden Path
• Traefik: how ForwardAuth integrates → Reference / Traefik ForwardAuth

Doc types in this section:

• Tutorials: end-to-end walkthroughs for first-time setup
• How‑to guides: focused tasks (deploy, configure, integrate)
• Explanations: architecture and reasoning
• Reference: definitive details (config, endpoints, evidence)

Specialized endpoints

Quick links to commonly used specialized APIs exposed by the BFF (source on GitHub: https://github.com/empowerID/empowernow_docs):

• EmpowerID direct API: workflows and WebUI → Reference / EmpowerID direct API
• Legacy services proxy → Reference / Legacy proxy
• Streaming / SSE → Reference / Streaming / SSE
• IdP admin proxy → Reference / IdP admin proxy
• Health / Metrics → Reference / Health / Metrics
• YAML proxy (routes.yaml) → Reference / YAML proxy
• PDP authorization mapping → Prefer inline authz_map in routes; see How‑to / BFF Configuration & Routing and Reference / routes.yaml Reference. Legacy external file: Reference / PDP mapping (legacy)

AI chat completions through the BFF

• Explanation: Dynamic AI Model Routing — How It Works
• Tutorial: LLM Routing Quickstart
• How‑to: Enable Routing, Override Pricing, Budgets & Receipts, Observability
• Reference: LLM Routing Config, LLM Routing PDP
• Reference: AI Chat Completions (PDP Enforcement)