Passkeys are honestly one of the coolest things I’ve been playing around with recently.

Passkeys Are Just Cool

Passkeys are honestly one of the coolest things I’ve been playing around with recently.

I’m running Pocket ID as my own identity provider, and it has a very nice passkey implementation - basically passkey first.

In my current setup, I’m using a Google Pixel 8a with GrapheneOS as my custom ROM, and Bitwarden for storing my passkeys (with a self-hosted Vaultwarden instance behind it).

QR Codes are still cool

Most of my self-hosted services support OIDC integration, so I can simply put Pocket ID in front of them as my single sign-on.

Now, here’s the problem: when I’m on the go and need access to one of my apps, I don’t always have the Bitwarden browser extension installed. And to make things harder, I don’t have direct access to my vault, since it’s only reachable via VPN for security reasons.

This is exactly where passkeys shine. No more messing with pastebins or copying passwords from my phone to wherever I need them.

Instead, Pocket-ID just shows me a QR code. I scan it with my phone, select which passkey to use, Bitwarden pops up, I verify with my fingerprint - and I’m logged in.

Done.

It’s brilliant.

Fix the GOS issue

Of course, this doesn’t work out of the box for everyone. On stock Android or iOS, it should work seamlessly.

But with GrapheneOS I ran into a small issue: a permissions error.

The fix was simple though. I just opened the permissions manager in Settings (easiest way is to search for it), went to Nearby Devices, and allowed Google Play Services.

After that, the flow is perfect:

1. Open Pocket ID login page.
2. Click Login.
3. Wait for the QR code prompt.
4. Scan and approve with fingerprint.
5. Done.

That’s it and it feels so smooth.

Passkeys really are just cool.