Pgcli Single Sign-On (SSO)

The terminal cursor blinked, waiting for your command. You type pgcli and wish it could log you in with Single Sign-On. No more typing passwords, no more juggling credentials, no more storing secrets in plain text.

Pgcli Single Sign-On (SSO) is not natively built into pgcli, but you can make it work. By combining secure token-based authentication with SSO identity providers, you can bring modern login flows right to your Postgres CLI. The result is a smooth, centralized authentication system that’s faster and safer than static credentials.

SSO with pgcli starts by moving away from direct username:password connections. Instead, you generate a short-lived database access token after authenticating through your SSO provider—Okta, Google Workspace, Azure AD, or any OIDC-compliant system. That token is then used in place of a password in pgcli <connection-string>. Tokens expire fast, reducing the attack surface.

You can automate the flow with a CLI tool that requests the SSO login, waits for the browser-based approval, and returns a fresh token. This token can be piped directly into pgcli, avoiding hardcoding secrets into .pgclirc or shell history. When paired with role-based access control from the IdP, you gain fine-grained permissions that sync instantly across all your tools.

For engineering teams, the key advantages of pgcli SSO are:

• Centralized user management with your identity provider.
• Instant revocation of database access when offboarding a user.
• Reduced credential sprawl by eliminating long-lived passwords.
• Audit-friendly authentication that logs every sign-in through your IdP.

Implementing SSO for pgcli often starts with configuring your Postgres server to accept authentication from a custom token issuer. Vendor plugins or open source middleware can act as the bridge between OIDC and Postgres. Once the database trusts the issuer, pgcli can connect using those issued tokens just like any other credential—no patches to pgcli itself required.

SSO is not just about convenience. It’s about shrinking the security risks while speeding up access. Pgcli users no longer carry static passwords. Teams no longer worry about secret rotation spreadsheets. Everything runs through one trusted login.

See how fast you can get Pgcli Single Sign-On running. Try it live with secure token-based Postgres logins at hoop.dev and connect in minutes.