IIT KGP ERP Auto-Login

One-command sign-in for the IIT KGP ERP portal: the script logs in, fetches the email OTP by itself, and opens ERP in your browser already logged in — no typing, no OTP copy-paste. Works on Windows, macOS and Linux, and you choose which browser opens.

erp-login  ─►  OTP fetched from Gmail  ─►  your browser opens, logged in

What it does

1. Performs the full SSO handshake (session token → security question → password + OTP) exactly like a browser does.
2. Reads the OTP mail automatically over Gmail IMAP using a Google app password, or falls back to asking you to type the OTP.
3. Opens https://erp.iitkgp.ac.in/IIT_ERP3/?ssoToken=… in the browser of your choice (Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Chromium, or your default). The ssoToken is handed over untouched so the first client to present it is the browser.
4. Caches valid tokens locally — reruns within the session's lifetime skip the whole login flow.
5. Ships with a tiny browser extension that keeps the ERP session alive (keepAlive.htm every 20 minutes) and can sign the browser in from the clipboard as a fallback.

Requirements

OS	Windows 10/11, macOS, or any modern Linux
Python	3.9 or newer (py --version / python3 --version)
Mailbox	A Gmail-hosted account that receives the ERP OTP mail (your @kgpian.iitkgp.ac.in address)
Browser	Any; Chromium-based browsers (Brave/Chrome/Edge) also get the keep-alive extension

No Google Cloud project is needed anywhere.

Setup

Option A — install with pip (recommended)

pip install iitkgp-erp-autologin
erp-login --setup     # one-time wizard
erp-login             # every login after that

The wizard asks for your roll number, password, preferred browser, security question(s), and optionally the Gmail app password for automatic OTP reading. It stores everything in a private file (permissions 600) outside any repo:

OS	Config directory
Windows	%APPDATA%\erp-autologin\credentials.py
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/erp-autologin/credentials.py
Linux	~/.config/erp-autologin/credentials.py (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME)

The cached ERP session (.session) lives right next to it. Re-run erp-login --setup whenever you want to change something, and use erp-login --no-open to log in without launching a browser.

Prefer editing by hand? Copy erpcreds.example.py from this repo to the config path above as credentials.py.

Option B — run from a source checkout

1. Clone and install

Windows (PowerShell or cmd):

git clone https://github.com/kushc2004/iitkgp-erp-autologin.git
cd iitkgp-erp-autologin
py -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\pip install -r requirements.txt

macOS / Linux (terminal):

git clone https://github.com/kushc2004/iitkgp-erp-autologin.git
cd iitkgp-erp-autologin
python3 -m venv venv
venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Only two packages are needed: requests and beautifulsoup4. OTP reading uses Python's built-in imaplib.

2. Add your credentials

# Windows
copy erpcreds.example.py erpcreds.py
notepad erpcreds.py

# macOS / Linux
cp erpcreds.example.py erpcreds.py
nano erpcreds.py        # or any editor

Fill in:

Field	What goes there
ROLL_NUMBER	Your roll number
PASSWORD	Your ERP password
BROWSER	Which browser opens ERP — see Pick your browser
SECURITY_QUESTIONS_ANSWERS	Your security question and answer
EMAIL_ADDRESS	The mailbox that receives ERP OTP mails (optional)
EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD	A 16-character Google app password (optional)

Don't know the exact wording of your security question? Leave SECURITY_QUESTIONS_ANSWERS empty — on the first run you'll be shown the question, type the answer once, and the script prints a ready-made line to paste into erpcreds.py for future runs:

SECURITY_QUESTIONS_ANSWERS = {
    "what is your mothers name": "…",
}

Capitalisation doesn't matter; URL-encoding oddities are handled for you.

Pick your browser

Set BROWSER in erpcreds.py (or answer the prompt in erp-login --setup):

Value	Behaviour
"default"	Opens with the system default browser (open / start / xdg-open)
"brave", "chrome", "chromium", "edge", "firefox"	Auto-locates that browser in its standard install location on your OS
full path	Uses exactly that executable — e.g. /Applications/Vivaldi.app (macOS), C:\Program Files\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe (Windows), /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable (Linux)

If a named browser isn't installed, the script tells you and falls back to the system default instead of failing.

Standard locations searched per browser:

• Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMFILES(X86)% and %LOCALAPPDATA% (e.g. %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe)
• macOS: /Applications and ~/Applications
• Linux: whatever is on $PATH (brave-browser, google-chrome, microsoft-edge, firefox, …)

Automatic OTP — create a Gmail app password

No project, no consent screen, no OAuth files. One minute of setup:

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification for the account: https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/two-step-verification
2. Create an app password: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords → name it e.g. erp-login → copy the 16-character password.
3. Paste it into EMAIL_APP_PASSWORD in erpcreds.py and set EMAIL_ADDRESS to the same mailbox.

If your Google Workspace org blocks app passwords, leave both fields blank — the script will simply print "Enter the OTP" and wait for you to type it. Everything else works identically.

Run it

Platform	Run it
Installed package	erp-login
Windows	Double-click open_erp.bat, or run venv\Scripts\python open_erp.py
macOS	Double-click open_erp.command in Finder, or run ./open_erp.sh
Linux	Run ./open_erp.sh

You should see the handshake log end with Generated ssoToken, then your browser opens inside ERP. On later runs, while the session is still valid, the cached tokens finish everything instantly.

Keep-alive extension (Chromium browsers)

ERP sessions expire quickly when idle. The bundled extension pings keepAlive.htm every 20 minutes whenever an ERP tab is open, and can also sign the browser in from your clipboard if a hand-off ever fails:

1. Open the extensions page in your Chromium browser: brave://extensions, chrome://extensions, or edge://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode → Load unpacked
3. Select the keepalive_extension folder from this repo

Buttons in the popup:

• Paste token & sign in — reads the ssoToken the script copies to your clipboard, clears stale ERP cookies, sets the fresh one as a cookie, and opens ERP. This bypasses URL-parameter quirks completely.
• Open ERP login — just opens the portal.

If you change extension code, hit its reload icon on the extensions page. (Firefox users: the script works fine without the extension.)

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Browser lands back on the ERP login page	Click the extension's Paste token & sign in. If it persists, clear cookies for erp.iitkgp.ac.in (padlock in the address bar → Site settings → Delete data) and run again.
"…was not found on this … system - using the default browser"	Install the named browser, or change BROWSER to another value/full path from Pick your browser.
Nothing opens on Linux	Install xdg-utils (sudo apt install xdg-utils), which provides xdg-open.
Invalid security question answer	Check the answer in your credentials file; make sure the key matches the question ERP shows you.
Gmail login over IMAP failed	App password wrong/revoked, or IMAP disabled for the account. Re-create the app password, or blank out both email fields to type OTPs manually.
Timed out waiting for the OTP mail	OTP never arrived (check the inbox manually) or IMAP is slow — run again, or use manual mode.
Invalid OTP	The previous attempt's OTP mail was picked up instead of the new one; run again.
Wrong-password error	Update PASSWORD via erp-login --setup or in your credentials file.

Security notes

• Credentials live in a user-private file outside the repo (credentials.py in the config directory, or a gitignored erpcreds.py in checkouts) — nothing sensitive can be committed by accident.
• Everything runs locally; nothing is sent anywhere except erp.iitkgp.ac.in and Gmail's IMAP server.
• The app password grants mailbox access only until you revoke it at https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords. Revoke it if a machine is lost.
• On shared machines, delete the .session file in the config directory after use.

Publishing / building the package yourself

pip install -U build twine
python -m build            # creates dist/*.whl and dist/*.tar.gz
twine upload dist/*        # pushes to PyPI

Test first on https://test.pypi.org with twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*, then install from there to verify.

Credits

Request sequence based on the reverse-engineered ERP SSO flow popularised by proffapt/iitkgp-erp-login-pypi. This repo is a self-contained rewrite: single small package, IMAP app-password OTP instead of Google OAuth, redirect-safe token hand-off to the browser, cross-platform launchers with browser selection, and a keep-alive extension.

License

MIT