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Lesson 7 of 11 · 1:33
Sign people in with JWT
From Your help center, inside your product · Verified against the live product on Oct 20, 2026
JWT sign-in: Catalyst
This lesson
Keep a private help center for signed-in partners: the shared secret, your token route, and onAuthExpired.
Prefer to read? Follow it step by step
Moments in this lesson
Length 1:03
Up next · 1:03
8. Fit help into your web app
Give each page of your app a help category, and call setCategory whenever the page changes.
Transcript
- 5:03Now let's move to a web app.
- 5:06This is the Partner Hub, where Northwind's installers sign in to manage their jobs.
- 5:11Its help center is private: only partners may read it.
- 5:14So the widget has to know who is signed in.
- 5:17For that, we use JWT single sign-on.
- 5:21In the settings of the partner help center, I'll find Single sign-on, and switch it on.
- 5:27I'll fill in our Login URL.
- 5:29More about that in a moment.
- 5:31Then I'll click Generate to create a shared secret... and Save JWT settings.
- 5:37The secret belongs on our server, and nowhere else.
- 5:40I'll copy it... and add it to our server's settings.
- 5:43On the server, a few lines sign a short token for the partner who is signed in:
- 5:48their email and name, our own user ID...
- 5:51a unique ID for the token, and a lifetime of five minutes.
- 5:55Each token works only once.
- 5:58The widget gets its tokens from this route.
- 6:00And in the app itself, help.js loads the widget once, right after a partner signs in.
- 6:06It passes a first token... and onAuthExpired, which the widget calls whenever it needs a fresh one.
- 6:12Let's sign in as a partner... and open the widget.
- 6:15These are the partner guides, from our private help center.
- 6:19And the Login URL is for the help center itself.
- 6:22When a signed-in partner opens it directly... the help center sends them to our app, which signs them in with a token... and sends them straight back.
Captions and this transcript come from the narration, word for word. Click any line to play from there.
About the course
Every way to add HelpCenter.io to your website or web app: the widget, FAQ sections, proactive messages, JWT sign-in and more.
What you'll learn
- Where the installation snippet is, and why the widget needs your domain in Embedding origins
- What visitors can do in the widget: suggestions for the page they're on, search, Ask AI, contact
- Opening an article in the widget from your own links
- FAQ sections: Custom or Full, a design, the questions, and the one line to paste
- Proactive messages: page and time rules, and custom events from your own code
- JWT single sign-on for a private help center
- Single-page apps, a custom domain, and subfolder hosting
- Who it's for
- Developers and product teams putting help inside a website or a signed-in web app.
- Format
- 11 lessons, 9:31 in all. English captions and a full transcript.
- Last verified
- Oct 20, 2026, on the live product with the Northwind demo help center
- Plans
-
Works on every plan. These lessons cover features on higher plans, and say so:
- Lesson 3 · What your visitors get AI answers: Catalyst or AI add-on
- Lesson 7 · Sign people in with JWT JWT sign-in: Catalyst
- Lesson 9 · React to what happens in your app Custom event triggers: Growth and Catalyst
- Lesson 10 · Your help center on your own address Subfolder hosting: Growth and Catalyst
Articles
Every lesson pairs with a help article, so you can read the steps at your own pace.
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Add the widget to your website self.helpcenter.io/content/install-the-widgetGoes with these lessons
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Choose which websites can show the widget self.helpcenter.io/content/embedding-originsGoes with
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What visitors see in the widget self.helpcenter.io/content/widget-for-visitorsGoes with
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Turn on AI Answers self.helpcenter.io/content/ai-answersGoes with
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Open the widget from your own UI developers.helpcenter.io/content/open-the-widget-from-your-uiGoes with
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Embed FAQ sections on your website self.helpcenter.io/content/faq-sectionsGoes with
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Invite visitors with proactive messages self.helpcenter.io/content/proactive-messagesGoes with these lessons
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Sign readers in with your own login (JWT SSO) self.helpcenter.io/content/jwt-ssoGoes with
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Sign readers into the widget with a JWT developers.helpcenter.io/content/widget-jwtGoes with
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Widget JavaScript API developers.helpcenter.io/content/widget-javascript-apiGoes with these lessons
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Show your help center only inside your app self.helpcenter.io/content/js-only-accessGoes with
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Use your own domain self.helpcenter.io/content/custom-domainGoes with
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Host your help center in a subfolder of your website self.helpcenter.io/content/host-your-help-center-in-a-subfolderGoes with
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Widget installation and options developers.helpcenter.io/content/widget-optionsGoes with