Custom login domain

By default, your Common Fate deployment will have a random sign-in URL which looks something like this:

https://cf-auth-settled-cub.auth.ap-southeast-2.amazoncognito.com

This guide will walk you through using a custom domain for this sign-in URL. At the end of this guide, instead of your users seeing the domain above, they’ll see something like:

https://auth.commonfate.example.com

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Prerequisites

• An AWS account with necessary permissions.
• Terraform installed and configured.
• Access to DNS settings for domain configuration.

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Domain Configuration

Create a certificate in the us-east-1 region for the AWS Cognito hosted authentication UI. When prompted, use the custom domain that you plan to use for authentication - e.g auth.commonfate.example.com.

If the parent domain of the auth domain does not resolve to an IP address, create a temporary A record in your DNS configuration. Example: if using auth.commonfate.example.com, ensure commonfate.example.com resolves to an IP (e.g., 8.8.8.8). This is a temporary record needed for the initial deployment. This is an AWS requirement when configuring a custom domain for AWS Cognito and is a necessary bootstrapping step for your initial deployment.

After creating the ACM certificates you will need to configure the DNS verification records in your DNS provider.

Once ACM shows that your domains are verified, you can continue with the deployment.

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Update your Terraform module

Update your common-fate-deployment Terraform module to add the auth_certificate_arn and auth_url as follows:

module "common-fate-deployment" {
  source                = "common-fate/common-fate-deployment/aws"
  ... other parameters

+ auth_certificate_arn  = <your auth certificate ARN in us-east-1>
+ auth_url           = "https://auth.commonfate.example.com" // change this to your actual desired authentication domain.
}

output "first_time_setup_config" {
  description = "Common Fate Setup Config"
  value       = module.common-fate-deployment.first_time_setup_config
}

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Final DNS Configuration

Now that your AWS Cognito resources are deployed, you can configure your DNS records.

1. If you configured a temporary A record for the root domain of your auth domain, it can now be removed.
2. For your Auth domain, create a CNAME record pointing to the user_pool_cloudfront_distribution from the deployment outputs.
3. After deploying you can test everything is working by opening your Web domain in a browser and you should be directed to the login screen. The login UI should now be hosted at the custom domain that you’ve specified.