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2. Introduction

To get general information regarding Gaia-X and the Gaia-X Federation Services please refer to Architecture ducument1.

2.1 Document Purpose

This document covers the Gaia-X Identity, Credential and Access management specifications.

2.2 Product Scope

The scope of the document is to describe the components for “Authorization & Authentication” which shall deliver core functionalities for authorization, access management and authentication as well as services around it, to Gaia-X Participants with the purpose to join the trustful environment of the ecosystem. This document does not describe how to replace an already established IAM System within a Gaia-X participant environment or how to operate it within the Gaia-X participant environment. There is also no claim to replace any existing IAM or to provide a solution for managing users in the enterprise environment of the Gaia-X participant.

2.3 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations

The IDM and Trust Architecture Overview Document IDM.AO1MUST be considered and applied as the core technical concept that includes also the Terminology and Glossary.

2.4 Document Overview

The document describes the product perspective, functions, and constraints. It furthermore lists the non-functional requirements and defines the system features in detail. The listed requirements are binding. Requirements as an expression of normative specifications are identified by a unique ID in square brackets (e.g. [IDM.ID.Number]) and the keywords MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, MAY, corresponding to RFC2119 2, are written in capital letters.


  1. Gaia-X Architecture. <(https://docs.gaia-x.eu/technical-committee/architecture-document/22.04/)> 

  2. Network Working Group. (1997). Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. <(https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2119)>