azure-identity-broker

What it is and what it does

Azure Identity Broker is a plugin for the Azure Identity library that delegates authentication to platform-native credential brokers already running on a user's machine. Instead of handling authentication directly in your Python application, it uses Web Account Manager (WAM) on Windows and WSL, Company Portal on macOS, or Microsoft Identity Broker on Linux to manage tokens and authentication handshakes. This approach leverages the operating system's built-in security and account management, reducing the burden on individual applications.

The package provides InteractiveBrowserBrokerCredential, which extends Azure Identity's InteractiveBrowserCredential to work with these brokers. You supply a parent window handle so the broker's authentication dialog appears in the correct context, and optionally enable silent authentication to use the default broker account without user interaction. It integrates with any Azure SDK client library that accepts credentials from Azure Identity, making it suitable for desktop applications that need to authenticate users against Microsoft Entra ID.

Use it for:

• Desktop applications on Windows/macOS/Linux that need to authenticate users against Microsoft Entra ID without managing tokens directly.
• Applications requiring single sign-on (SSO) by leveraging existing platform broker accounts already authenticated on the user's machine.
• Scenarios where you want to enable MSA passthrough for first-party applications to accept personal Microsoft accounts.
• Interactive applications that need to show authentication dialogs in the correct window context via a parent window handle.
• Enterprise deployments where the broker (WAM, Company Portal, or Identity Broker) is already deployed and managed by IT.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Extends Azure Identity to enable authentication through platform-native authentication brokers (WAM on Windows/WSL, Company Portal on macOS, Microsoft Identity Broker on Linux) via the InteractiveBrowserBrokerCredential class.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and requires only two lightweight runtime dependencies (azure-identity and msal). Install it if you are building a desktop application that needs to authenticate against Microsoft Entra ID and can rely on a platform broker being present. Not suitable if you need Azure AD B2C support or if your deployment environment lacks a compatible broker.

Install

azure-identity-broker on PyPI

pip install azure-identity-broker

uv add azure-identity-broker

poetry add azure-identity-broker

Installing azure-identity-broker

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure Python wheel. Actively maintained with recent release (2025-08-07) and ongoing commits. Requires Python 3.9 or later; Python 3.8 support was dropped in version 1.3.0b2.

License in practice

MIT License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—you may use, modify, and distribute the package freely provided you include the license notice.

Quickstart

pip install azure-identity-broker

from azure.identity.broker import InteractiveBrowserBrokerCredential

credential = InteractiveBrowserBrokerCredential(parent_window_handle=window_handle)
# Use credential with Azure SDK clients like BlobServiceClient

Requires a parent window handle (integer on Windows/macOS, or msal.PublicClientApplication.CONSOLE_WINDOW_HANDLE on macOS). Platform-specific broker must be installed and running on the user's machine.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works with all versions of azure-identity or has specific version constraints beyond what the fact sheet shows.
• Performance characteristics or latency overhead of broker-mediated authentication compared to direct credential flows.
• Detailed error handling and recovery behavior when the broker is unavailable or authentication fails.

Package facts

Evidence: azure_identity_broker-1.3.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: azure, azure sdk

Tags

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