Protocols
Discovery document
The JSON metadata at /.well-known/openid-configuration describing an OpenID provider's endpoints and capabilities.
What Discovery document means
An OpenID Connect discovery document is a JSON file published at the issuer's /.well-known/openid-configuration that lists the provider's issuer, authorization, token, userinfo and JWKS endpoints, supported scopes, response types and signing algorithms. Client libraries read it so endpoints never need to be hard-coded.
Defined in: OpenID Connect Discovery 1.0; RFC 8414.
How it works
OpenID Connect Discovery 1.0 defines the format. RFC 8414 defines the equivalent for plain OAuth 2.0 authorization servers at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server.
The issuer value in the document must exactly match the iss claim in tokens the provider issues, which is what ties the two together.
The mistake people actually make
Fetching discovery from a URL built from untrusted input, or not verifying that its issuer equals the one you configured.
In Authreads
How this applies here
Authreads publishes a discovery document and a JWKS of Ed25519 verification keys.
Every capability is listed on /roadmap as Available, In progress or Planned. Nothing is described as available here that is not listed as Available there.
Related terms
OpenID Connect (OIDC)
An identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0 that lets an application verify who a user is, not just what it may access.
JWKS
A JSON Web Key Set — the public keys an identity provider publishes so anyone can verify its signed tokens.
ID token
A signed JWT from an OpenID Connect provider carrying verifiable claims about the authenticated user.
Building on any of this?
Tell us what you're putting together. We'll tell you plainly whether Authreads fits it.