OpenID4VCI

Python implementation of the OpenID4VCI specification for eduTAP.

This implementation follows the final specification of OpenID4VCI 1.0 (https://openid.net/specs/openid-4-verifiable-credential-issuance-1_0.html).

Scope: the Issuer role

The specification defines three roles: Wallet, Credential Issuer and Authorization Server. This library implements the Credential Issuer. The Wallet role belongs to Google Wallet, Apple Wallet, the EUDI Wallet and others; we talk to them, we do not implement them.

Whether the Authorization Server is this application or a separate deployment is left open — the issuer metadata field authorization_servers carries either answer.

Credential formats

Adapters exist for the three Credential Format Profiles of Appendix A. Note the exact format identifiers, because they are what a Wallet matches against:

Earlier drafts used vc+sd-jwt for SD-JWT VC. Current profiles — among them the OpenID4VC High Assurance Interoperability Profile 1.0 — use dc+sd-jwt.

Installation

pip install openid4vci

CBOR and COSE are only needed by the ISO mdoc profile, so they sit behind an extra. Install it when you issue mso_mdoc:

pip install "openid4vci[mdoc]"

JOSE is not optional and ships with the base install: key possession proofs, signed issuer metadata and encrypted responses are all JWS/JWE/JWK.

Endpoints and their modules

Status

The model layer is implemented and tested against the specification: every request, response and metadata document of Sections 4 to 12, with the rules the specification states in prose enforced by validators rather than left to the caller.

jwt key proof validation (Appendix F.1) is implemented, as is the FastAPI router serving the Nonce, Credential, Deferred Credential and Notification endpoints and the metadata document. The router owns the protocol mechanics and delegates every decision to an IssuerBackend a deployment provides.

Message encryption (Section 10) and signing are implemented too. The signer is a protocol with a local implementation, so an HSM or a remote signing service can take its place.

Not implemented yet: the credential format adapters (adapters/) and the di_vp and attestation proof types.

Built against the specification source at tag 1.0-final of openid/OpenID4VCI. 1.0 is the Final Specification and is not subject to further revision; 1.1 exists only as a working group draft.

Documentation

Follows Diataxis, builds with Sphinx and MyST:

make docs

Relationship to the platform packages

Wallet vendors accept OpenID4VCI alongside their own proprietary provisioning APIs. The platform packages depend on this library and add only what is vendor-specific — the offer delivery mechanism, the metadata profile a given wallet accepts, and its trust anchors:

edutap.wallet_google_identity  ->  openid4vci
edutap.wallet_apple            ->  (own protocol)

The dependency points one way. Nothing vendor-specific belongs in this package.