Secure Admin Setup Without a Database (for Now!)

Hey fellow devs! I recently tackled the challenge of building an authentication service for a microservices project. My priorities for v1 were speed and security, which led me down an interesting path: using an in-memory database. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "In-memory? For auth?" Bear with me. Why In-Memory? I wanted to validate the core authentication flow quickly, without getting bogged down by SQL or Redis setup. But this decision introduced a classic problem: How do you securely bootstrap the initial admin user when your database is wiped on every restart? Traditional approaches like migrations or environment variables felt brittle or insecure for this ephemeral setup. So, I looked at inspiration from tools like HashiCorp Vault and Grafana, and came up with my own twist.

Apr 10, 2025 - 20:24

Secure Admin Setup Without a Database (for Now!)

Hey fellow devs! I recently tackled the challenge of building an authentication service for a microservices project. My priorities for v1 were speed and security, which led me down an interesting path: using an in-memory database.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "In-memory? For auth?" Bear with me.

Why In-Memory?

I wanted to validate the core authentication flow quickly, without getting bogged down by SQL or Redis setup. But this decision introduced a classic problem:

How do you securely bootstrap the initial admin user when your database is wiped on every restart?

Traditional approaches like migrations or environment variables felt brittle or insecure for this ephemeral setup. So, I looked at inspiration from tools like HashiCorp Vault and Grafana, and came up with my own twist.