---
title: "Authenticated help centers"
description: "Authenticated help centers let you gate access to your Brainfish-hosted Help Center so only signed-in users from your application can view it. Brainfish supports this via JWT tokens configured on your Help Center Agent."
canonical_url: "https://help.brainfi.sh/articles/authenticated-help-centers-bepb7NLdHM"
md_url: "https://help.brainfi.sh/articles/authenticated-help-centers-bepb7NLdHM.md"
---
# Authenticated help centers

Authenticated help centers let you gate access to your Brainfish-hosted Help Center so only signed-in users from your application can view it. Brainfish supports this via JWT tokens configured on your Help Center Agent.

## How it works

1. Your application authenticates the user and issues a JWT signed with a shared secret.
2. The Brainfish Help Center page calls your authentication endpoint to verify the user is signed in (cookie-based) or accepts the JWT directly.
3. Brainfish validates the JWT against the secret you've configured and serves help center content only if validation succeeds.

## Configure JWT authentication in Brainfish

1. Open the **Distribution** tab, then choose your Help Center agent.
2. Scroll to **Advanced Settings** and expand it.
3. Under **Authentication**, paste your JWT shared secret. Save changes.

Once that's saved, your Help Center will require a valid JWT (or a valid authenticated session, depending on how you wire it up) before serving content.

## Example: checking authentication via a cookie

Below is a sample fetch you can add to your help center page (or your application shell) to check whether the user is authenticated using a cookie issued by your own application:

```javascript
// Replace this URL with your authentication API endpoint
const authApiUrl = "https://your-auth-api.com/is-authenticated";

function checkUserAuthentication() {
  fetch(authApiUrl, {
    method: "GET",
    credentials: "include" // send cookies along with the request
  })
    .then((response) => {
      if (response.ok) return response.json();
      throw new Error("Error fetching authentication status");
    })
    .then((data) => {
      if (data.isAuthenticated) {
        console.log("User is authenticated");
      } else {
        console.log("User is not authenticated");
      }
    })
    .catch((error) => {
      console.error("Error:", error);
    });
}

checkUserAuthentication();
```

Replace `authApiUrl` with your own authentication API endpoint. The endpoint should read the user's session cookie and return a JSON body like `{ "isAuthenticated": true }`. With `credentials: "include"`, the fetch sends cookies along with the request so your endpoint can verify the session.

## Related articles

- [How to Set Up Multiple Help Centers in Brainfish](/articles/how-to-set-up-multiple-help-centers-in-brainfish-KJOa2l4dQR)
- [Customising Brainfish for Your Brand](/articles/customising-brainfish-for-your-brand-personalising-the-user-interface-for-help-center-TSiVf44ZhV)