Keycloak is the bouncer at the door of your applications — it checks IDs, manages guest lists, and makes sure the right people get in while keeping the wrong ones out. Except this bouncer handles millions of users across hundreds of services, supports a dozen authentication protocols, and never sleeps.
Keycloak 26.7.0 is a massive release. We are talking SCIM user provisioning, multi-cluster HA without external caches, securing AI tools with MCP, and real-time security signals that tell your apps the moment a user goes rogue. This is not a patch release. This is Keycloak strapping on new armor for the AI era.
Let us walk through what is new and why it matters.
SCIM API: Automate User Provisioning Without the Pain
SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) is the standard protocol for automatically creating, updating, and deleting users across systems. Think of it as HR-on-autopilot: when someone joins your company, SCIM makes sure their account appears in Keycloak automatically — no manual setup, no spreadsheet imports.
Keycloak now has full SCIM APIs for managing users and groups. The implementation covers CRUD operations, PATCH, filtering, pagination, schema extensions (including Enterprise User), and schema discovery endpoints. Enable it with the scim-api feature flag.
# Enable the SCIM API
kc.sh start --features=scim-apiThis is a preview feature, meaning it works but is still evolving. If you integrate with identity governance platforms, HR systems, or other identity providers, this is the feature you have been waiting for. Read the SCIM documentation.
Multi-Cluster HA Without External Caches
The old way of running Keycloak across multiple clusters required deploying and managing a separate Infinispan cluster for cross-site session replication, plus vendor-specific fencing infrastructure for automated failover. That is a lot of moving parts.
Multi-cluster v2 removes the external Infinispan requirement entirely. Keycloak instances connect directly to each other using embedded caches and rely on the synchronously replicated database as the single source of truth. Cache invalidation across sites happens through a database-backed outbox pattern. The load balancer can detect site downtime without needing external fencing.
Fewer moving parts means fewer ways to break at 3 AM.
# Enable stateless multi-cluster mode
kc.sh start --features=statelessThis is a preview feature, but it represents a fundamental simplification of how you run Keycloak at scale. Read the multi-cluster v2 guide.
Securing AI Tools and MCP Servers
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is becoming the standard way for AI applications to connect to external tools and data sources. But every new connection point is a new attack surface — and in the AI era, your AI assistant pulling data from your production database is exactly the kind of thing that needs proper authorization.
Keycloak now provides OAuth 2.0 authorization for MCP servers. This release adds integration documentation for Claude Code as an MCP client, alongside existing Visual Studio Code support. Both use the OAuth Client ID Metadata Document (CIMD) for dynamic client registration with PKCE-secured public client flows and localhost callbacks.
In plain English: your AI tools can now authenticate through Keycloak instead of using hardcoded API keys. Read the MCP integration guide.
Real-Time Security Signals with Shared Signals Framework
When a user logs out, changes credentials, or gets disabled in Keycloak, downstream applications typically do not learn about it until the next token refresh. That leaves a dangerous window where stale sessions remain active.
The Shared Signals Framework (SSF) closes this gap. Keycloak can now act as an SSF Transmitter, pushing signed Security Event Tokens (SETs) to registered receivers in near real time. It supports CAEP 1.0 (Continuous Access Evaluation Profile) and RISC 1.0 (Risk and Incident Sharing and Coordination) event profiles with both push and poll delivery methods.
# Enable Shared Signals Framework
kc.sh start --features=ssfEvents are persisted to a durable outbox so no signal is lost across restarts, and a cluster-aware background drainer handles retries with exponential backoff. Read the SSF guide.
More New Capabilities
Identity Brokering API V2
The Identity Brokering API lets applications retrieve tokens from external identity providers during federated login. V2 replaces the legacy V1 with client-level authorization, confidential-clients-only access, OAuth 2.0 compliant endpoints, and session-based token storage. V2 is supported but disabled by default; V1 is deprecated. Read the Identity Brokering APIs docs.
AuthZen Authorization API
Applications that need fine-grained authorization typically call Keycloak’s proprietary API. The OpenID AuthZEN Authorization API 1.0 defines a vendor-neutral protocol for authorization decisions. Keycloak now implements the AuthZEN Evaluation API as a Policy Decision Point (PDP). Enable with authzen. Read the AuthZen guide.
Admin API v2 with OpenAPI
The original Admin REST API has long-standing limitations around validation and client generation. Admin API v2 introduces strict validation, declarative configuration support, and an accurate OpenAPI specification that enables reliable client generation. The Keycloak Operator uses it for declarative client management via KeycloakOIDCClient and KeycloakSAMLClient custom resources. Enable with client-admin-api:v2. Read the Admin API v2 guide.
SAML Step-Up Authentication
Step-up authentication — requiring stronger authentication for sensitive operations — was previously only available for OpenID Connect clients. Keycloak now extends this to SAML, and the step-up-authentication-saml feature has been promoted from preview to supported. Read the SAML step-up auth docs.
Verifiable Credentials (OID4VCI) Improvements
The experimental OID4VCI feature — which lets organizations issue tamper-proof digital credentials like employee badges and diplomas — received major improvements: admin UI configuration, HAIP conformance, pre-authorized code flow, credential refresh intervals, and per-user credential management.
Token Exchange Delegation
A new delegation scope type validates whether a requesting user is authorized to act on behalf of a target user before a token exchange is granted. Requires user consent and is reassessed on every token refresh. Enable with token-exchange-delegation.
Organization Admin Roles and Fine-Grained Permissions
Managing organizations previously required the high-privilege manage-realm role. New dedicated roles — manage-organizations, view-organizations, and query-organizations — let administrators delegate organization management without over-provisioning access.
Security Fixes
This release addresses four security vulnerabilities:
- CVE-2026-9796 — Admin role rename TOCTOU bypass that could allow realm-wide escalation from manage-clients.
- CVE-2026-9689 — HTTP Parameter Pollution in OIDC redirect URI allowing response parameter duplication.
- CVE-2026-9798 — CIBA authentication flow bypassing brute-force account lockout.
- CVE-2026-11986 — FGAP v1 allowing unassigning any role.
Review the upgrade guide before upgrading.
Closing
Keycloak 26.7.0 is the identity platform deciding it wants to be ready for everything — SCIM, AI tools, multi-cluster simplicity, real-time security signals, and a dozen standards-based protocols. If identity is your job, this one is worth the upgrade.
