OpenID logoBased on feedback from developers, the OpenID Connect working group decided to replace the OpenID Connect Messages and OpenID Connect Standard specifications with a new OpenID Connect Core specification that combines the contents from both of them before finishing OpenID Connect. The content has also been restructured to separate Authentication from other features such as Claims and to have separate Authentication sections for the different OAuth 2.0 flows. No changes to the protocol were made. The publication of this new spec is another major step towards finishing OpenID Connect.

Please review this and the other OpenID Connect specifications in the coming week. While a few local changes will still be made this week to address issues that have been identified since the approval of the Implementer’s Drafts, I fully expect that the working group will decide at the in-person working group meeting just over a week from now that it’s time to publish proposed final specifications.

Thanks to Nat Sakimura for producing a proof-of-concept document restructuring that the structure of the current OpenID Connect Core spec is based upon. And thanks to Torsten Lodderstedt for convincing us that the specs will be clearer by better separating the descriptions of logically distinct features while combining previously separate descriptions of highly interrelated functionality.