Enabling dashboard SSO for Gradual allows community admins to access the Gradual dashboard by signing in through their organization's preferred identity provider or application. This provides a streamlined authentication experience while centralizing access management. Once signed in, admins can create and manage events, manage members, customize the community, and perform other administrative tasks within the Gradual dashboard.
Dashboard SSO Setup
Prerequisites
Each community needs to have and/or share the following before we can move forward with Dashboard SSO implementation:
Sandbox and Production Gradual tenants
Identity Provider (Okta, Onelogin, Auth0)
Preferred Protocol (We support OAuth 2.0 with OpenID Connect / OIDC or SAML 2.0)
Expected Timeline for SSO Deployment
What Gradual Shares
Once we know what protocol you are using, Gradual provides these values for each instance (sandbox and production). These are needed to create the SAML app / OAuth client in your IdP.
OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect (OIDC) | SAML 2.0 |
Redirect / Callback URL: | ACS / Reply URL (HTTP-POST): https://dashboard.gradual.com/<your-slug>/callback/saml |
What Gradual Needs
OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect (OIDC) | SAML 2.0 |
The easiest option is to share your OpenID Discovery Document URL (https://[your-provider.com]/…/.well-known/openid-configuration) If the discovery document is not available, please provide:
Is the token-endpoint authorized via request body or Authorization header? | The easiest option is to share your IdP metadata XML file. Alternatively, please provide the following:
Does the X.509 certificate expire? If yes, then what’s the rotation schedule? |
Provisioning your Dashboard Admins
SSO authenticates identity; it does not grant admin access. Every person who should reach the dashboard must already be a Gradual dashboard admin, matched by the email their IdP sends. Before go-live, give us the list of admin emails (or have an existing admin grant them). An authenticated user with no admin rights will be able to pass SSO but will be denied at the dashboard.
Testing on a Sandbox Instance
Gradual can provision a sandbox instance of your community which you may use to test your dashboard SSO integration. We configure SSO and provision test admins on the sandbox first, verify the admin login end-to-end with you, and only then cut over production.
LOCKOUT RISK: Because dashboard SSO replaces email/password login, a misconfiguration can lock admins out of the production dashboard. Always validate on the sandbox first.
Go Live on Production
At cutover, Gradual switches your production dashboard to SSO and verifies the configuration. It's best to determine a date/time for the switch with the Gradual team to ensure both sides are online and ready for testing. We recommend an immediate smoke test with one real admin account. If admins can't get in, Gradual can revert the dashboard to email/password login while we correct the configuration — so keep at least one Gradual-side admin contact available during cutover.
Logging into the dashboard with SSO
Log into your dashboard by navigating to dashboard.gradual.com.
Select Sign in with SSO.
Enter your community domain in the field provided.
Click Sign in with SSO.
Your community domain is the URL for your specific community (e.g. community.gradual.com). It is not your email address or company name.
Finding your Community Domain
If you are unsure of your community domain:
Check the URL of your community’s front-end page.
Click “I don’t know what my community domain is” below the Sign in with SSO button to access the FAQ.
For demo or sandbox environments, the Gradual team typically shares the necessary access details with your team.
If you are Unable to Login
If you experience an error during login, it is typically due to one of the following reasons:
You do not have access through your organization’s SSO.
You must request access to Gradual from your internal IT team so your account can be enabled in your organization’s SSO system.
You are not added as a dashboard administrator.
Even with SSO access, you must be granted dashboard admin permissions.
If this is the issue:
Contact [email protected]
Alternatively, you may reach out to an existing community admin to be added as a dashboard administrator (How to Add Dashboard Admins).