Application categories

Casdoor uses categories and types to support both user-facing apps and machine-to-machine (M2M) apps. The category determines which protocol types and features are available.

Categories

Default

Default applications are for web or mobile apps where users sign in in a browser or client. Choose a protocol type:

• All — Multiple protocols
• OIDC, OAuth, SAML, CAS — Single protocol

Agent

Agent applications are for M2M: services or tools that authenticate programmatically, without a user UI. Types:

• MCP — Model Context Protocol (e.g. AI agents and MCP tools)
• A2A — Application-to-application (service-to-service)

When a client registers via OAuth Dynamic Client Registration, Casdoor can assign the Agent category and MCP type by default.

Changing category

Set or change the category on the application edit page. When you switch category, Type is updated automatically: Agent → MCP, Default → All.

Custom scopes (Agent only)

Agent applications can define custom scopes. Default applications use only standard OAuth/OIDC scopes.