What a developer needs to know about SCIM

SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) is a standard that enables identity providers like Okta and Entra to automatically manage user accounts across business applications. It handles three core operations: creating new users, updating existing user attributes, and removing users through standardized JSON-based HTTP requests. While conceptually simple, SCIM implementation involves handling various HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE), managing authentication via bearer tokens, and dealing with specification quirks and identity provider inconsistencies. The article recommends using off-the-shelf solutions rather than building SCIM from scratch due to the complexity of edge cases and vendor-specific implementations.