Overview
Directories are the central repository for user account information. They hold the accounts, passwords, email addresses, and settings used to authenticate users and validate message recipients. Their primary functions are:
Internal
The internal directory handles credential validation, email address lookup, and storage of account-level settings such as disk quotas and group memberships. It is suitable for deployments where Stalwart is the primary identity store and no external directory is in use. All account management, including the creation of new accounts, password changes, and quota adjustments, is carried out directly on the server.
SQL Database
Stalwart can authenticate users and look up account metadata against an SQL database such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite. This makes it possible to reuse an existing SQL-backed user directory, or to manage accounts in a relational schema that other applications already share.
LDAP Server
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an open, vendor-neutral protocol used to access and manage directory information services. LDAP directories such as OpenLDAP and Microsoft Active Directory store user credentials and metadata in a hierarchical form that can be queried efficiently, and are commonly used to centralise authentication across multiple systems.
OpenID Connect
Stalwart can authenticate users against a third-party OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider. This allows the server to delegate authentication to an existing identity system, for example Google, Microsoft Entra ID, or any OIDC-compliant provider.