WorkOS Migrations

A CLI tool for migrating from identity providers into WorkOS. Supports Auth0, AWS Cognito, Clerk, Firebase Auth, and custom CSV — moving users, organizations, memberships, roles + permissions, password hashes, and TOTP MFA factors, with SAML/OIDC SSO connections surfaced as handoff artifacts.

Quick Start

The fastest way to get started is with the interactive wizard:

export WORKOS_SECRET_KEY=sk_...

npx @workos/migrations wizard

The wizard walks you through provider selection, export/transform, validation, and import step by step.

Installation

Run directly with npx (no install needed):

npx @workos/migrations <command>

Or via the WorkOS CLI:

npx workos migrations <command>

Or install globally:

npm install -g @workos/migrations
workos-migrate <command>

Commands

| Command | Description | | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | export <provider> | Unified export — write a migration package from any source (see below) | | wizard | Interactive step-by-step migration wizard | | export-auth0 | Deprecated alias for export auth0 (removed in v4.0) | | export-cognito | Deprecated alias for export cognito (removed in v4.0) | | export-template | Export a blank CSV template (users, saml_connections, oidc_connections, etc.) | | merge-passwords | Merge Auth0 password hashes into the export CSV | | transform-clerk | Deprecated alias for export clerk (removed in v4.0) | | transform-firebase | Deprecated alias for export firebase (removed in v4.0) | | validate | Validate a CSV file before import | | import | Import users from CSV into WorkOS | | import-package | Import a migration package directory into WorkOS | | generate-package-template | Generate an empty migration package skeleton | | validate-package | Validate a migration package against the contract | | analyze | Analyze import errors and generate retry CSV | | enroll-totp | Enroll TOTP MFA factors for imported users | | process-role-definitions | Create roles and assign permissions in WorkOS |

Run npx @workos/migrations <command> --help for full option details on any command.

Exporting (unified command)

Every source is exported through one verb that always writes a migration package:

workos-migrate export <provider> --output-dir <dir> [provider options]

| Provider | Ingest | Example | | ---------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | auth0 | API | export auth0 --domain … --client-id … --client-secret … --output-dir ./pkg | | cognito | API | export cognito --region … --user-pool-ids … --output-dir ./pkg | | clerk | file | export clerk --from-file clerk.csv --output-dir ./pkg | | firebase | file | export firebase --from-file firebase.json --output-dir ./pkg | | csv | file | export csv --output-dir ./pkg (writes a fillable skeleton) |

Credentials and options are generated per provider — run workos-migrate export <provider> --help to see them. SSO handoff (SAML/OIDC) is opt-in where supported: pass --secret-key for Clerk, or --service-account-key + --project-id for Firebase.

The legacy export-auth0, export-cognito, transform-clerk, and transform-firebase commands still work but print a deprecation notice and will be removed in v4.0.

End-to-end: generate and import a package

Every migration is the same four steps — generate the package, validate it, optionally merge password hashes, then import:

# 1. Generate a migration package FROM your source provider
workos-migrate export auth0 \
  --domain my-tenant.us.auth0.com \
  --client-id <M2M_CLIENT_ID> \
  --client-secret <M2M_CLIENT_SECRET> \
  --output-dir ./migration

# 2. Validate it against the package contract
workos-migrate validate-package ./migration

# 3. (Auth0 only) Merge the password-hash export from Auth0 support
workos-migrate merge-passwords --package ./migration --passwords auth0-passwords.ndjson

# 4. Import users, organizations, memberships, roles, and TOTP factors into WorkOS
#    (add --plan or --dry-run first to preview)
export WORKOS_SECRET_KEY=sk_...
workos-migrate import-package ./migration

The package itself is a provider-neutral directory (users.csv, organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv, role_definitions.csv, user_role_assignments.csv, totp_secrets.csv, sso/ handoff CSVs, workos_upload/, and manifest.json) — see docs/migration-package.md for the full contract. Swap export auth0 for export cognito, export clerk --from-file …, export firebase --from-file …, or export csv to generate from a different source; steps 2–4 are identical.

The per-provider guides below cover provider-specific credential setup and options.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22.11+
• A WorkOS Secret Key (WORKOS_SECRET_KEY environment variable)

CSV Format

The import CSV uses these columns:

| Column | Required | Description | | -------------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | email | Yes | User email address | | first_name | No | First name | | last_name | No | Last name | | email_verified | No | true or false | | password_hash | No | Password hash value | | password_hash_type | No | bcrypt, firebase-scrypt, ssha, md5 | | external_id | No | External identifier from source system | | metadata | No | JSON string of custom metadata | | org_id | No | WorkOS organization ID | | org_external_id | No | External org identifier (looked up or auto-created) | | org_name | No | Organization name (used with auto-creation) | | role_slugs | No | Comma-separated role slugs for org membership |

The export and transform commands produce CSVs in this format automatically.

Migrating from Auth0

Auth0 is a parity-complete migration source. The end-to-end flow is:

1. Run export auth0 to produce a migration package with users, organizations, memberships, roles, SSO handoff files, warnings, and the upload-compatible projection. For very large tenants, --engine bulk-job is available; see step 3b.
2. Optionally run merge-passwords --package <dir> to merge the Auth0 password export into the package. Unsupported hash algorithms are skipped with warnings instead of failing the merge.
3. Run import-package <dir> to push organizations, users, memberships, roles, and TOTP factors into WorkOS in one shot. SSO connections are surfaced as handoff-only; see docs/auth0-sso-handoff.md.

1. Set up Auth0 credentials

Create a Machine-to-Machine application in Auth0, authorize it for the Management API, and grant these scopes:

• read:users
• read:user_idp_tokens
• read:organizations
• read:organization_members
• read:organization_member_roles
• read:roles
• read:connections
• read:connections_options

read:connections_options is required for complete SAML/OIDC handoff exports because Auth0 stores connection configuration inside the options object. If this scope is missing, later package phases will warn and omit fields that cannot be read.

2. Export

workos-migrate export auth0 \
  --domain my-tenant.us.auth0.com \
  --client-id <M2M_CLIENT_ID> \
  --client-secret <M2M_CLIENT_SECRET> \
  --output-dir ./migration-auth0

This writes the full migration package: users.csv, organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv, warnings, and skipped-user sidecars, plus the workos_upload/ projection (narrower WorkOS upload templates) and any sso/ handoff artifacts.

To include the Auth0 role catalog and per-org role assignments alongside users, organizations, and memberships:

workos-migrate export auth0 \
  --domain my-tenant.us.auth0.com \
  --client-id <M2M_CLIENT_ID> \
  --client-secret <M2M_CLIENT_SECRET> \
  --entities users,organizations,memberships,roles \
  --output-dir ./migration-auth0

This writes role_definitions.csv and user_role_assignments.csv and merges the matched role_slugs into users.csv and organization_memberships.csv. The process-role-definitions command can then create the roles in WorkOS and assign them to memberships. Note that the --use-metadata flow cannot fetch per-org assignments from Auth0, so it writes the role catalog only and emits a warning.

To write only SSO handoff files:

workos-migrate export auth0 \
  --domain my-tenant.us.auth0.com \
  --client-id <M2M_CLIENT_ID> \
  --client-secret <M2M_CLIENT_SECRET> \
  --entities sso \
  --output-dir ./migration-auth0-sso

Options:

• --orgs <ids...> - Filter to specific Auth0 organization IDs
• --entities <entities> - Comma-separated package entities to export (users,organizations,memberships,roles,sso)
• --rate-limit <n> - API requests per second (default: 50)
• --use-metadata - Use user_metadata for org discovery instead of the Organizations API
• --include-federated-users - Include federated/JIT users in package mode (skipped by default)
• --include-secrets - Include SSO connection secrets in package handoff files (redacted by default)
• --job-id <id> - Enable export checkpointing for large tenants
• --resume [jobId] - Resume a previously checkpointed export

The export maps Auth0 fields to WorkOS CSV format, including email_verified, external_id, and custom metadata. Auth0 package SSO export is handoff-only: it inspects Auth0 enterprise strategies for SAML/OIDC configuration and emits only connections with enough reliable handoff data. Database, passwordless, social, generic OAuth, non-SAML/OIDC enterprise, and incomplete connections are skipped with warnings.

For a callback proxy reference implementation during Auth0 enterprise-connection cutover, see proxy-sample-auth0. The repo also includes proxy-sample-cognito for Cognito migrations.

3. Merge password hashes (optional)

Auth0 does not include password hashes in the Management API export. You need to request a password export from Auth0 support, which provides an NDJSON file. Once you have it, the CLI supports both legacy single-CSV merging and package-aware merging:

# Single CSV (legacy)
workos-migrate merge-passwords \
  --csv auth0-export.csv \
  --passwords auth0-passwords.ndjson \
  --output auth0-with-passwords.csv

# Migration package — updates users.csv, workos_upload/users.csv, and the manifest
workos-migrate merge-passwords \
  --package ./migration-auth0 \
  --passwords auth0-passwords.ndjson

Package mode warns and omits credentials for users whose hash algorithm is not supported by WorkOS imports (anything other than bcrypt or md5). Users without a matching hash are left without a password and will need to reset on first login.

3b. Bulk export engine for very large tenants

For tenants where the Management API per-user fetch is too slow, package mode can use Auth0's users-exports job engine instead. This engine returns users without organization membership, so you'll typically run it alongside a Management API run that captured org/membership data, or follow up with a CSV-driven membership reconciliation.

workos-migrate export auth0 \
  --domain my-tenant.us.auth0.com \
  --client-id <M2M_CLIENT_ID> \
  --client-secret <M2M_CLIENT_SECRET> \
  --engine bulk-job \
  --output-dir ./migration-auth0-bulk

A bulk_export_no_org_membership warning is recorded in the package and bulk mode does not populate organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv, or per-org role assignments.

4. Validate, import, and post-import

Continue to Validation, Import, and Post-Import below.

Migrating from Clerk

1. Export from Clerk

Export your users from the Clerk Dashboard as a CSV file. The export includes columns like id, first_name, last_name, primary_email_address, password_digest, password_hasher, etc.

2. Export to a migration package

workos-migrate export clerk \
  --from-file clerk-export.csv \
  --output-dir ./migration-clerk \
  --org-mapping orgs.csv \
  --role-mapping roles.csv

This writes the canonical layout (users.csv, organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv, role_definitions.csv, user_role_assignments.csv, workos_upload/, manifest, warnings, skipped users) so the result can be fed straight into import-package. Unsupported password hashers are recorded as warnings instead of failing the export.

To also pull Clerk enterprise SAML/OIDC connections into the sso/ handoff CSVs, pass your Clerk Backend API key with --secret-key <sk_…> (or set CLERK_SECRET_KEY).

Options:

• --from-file <path> - Path to the Clerk dashboard CSV export (required)
• --org-mapping <path> - CSV mapping Clerk user IDs to organizations (clerk_user_id,org_external_id,org_name)
• --role-mapping <path> - CSV mapping Clerk user IDs to roles (clerk_user_id,role_slug)
• --secret-key <key> - Clerk Backend API key; enables enterprise SSO connection export
• --source-tenant <name> - Optional tenant identifier recorded in the manifest.

The transformer handles:

• Field mapping (Clerk columns to WorkOS columns)
• bcrypt password passthrough (other hash types like argon2 are dropped with a warning since WorkOS does not support them)
• Username, phone number, and TOTP secret preservation in metadata
• Organization and role sidecar merging into the output CSV (or package)

3. Validate, import, and post-import

Continue to Validation, Import, and Post-Import below.

Migrating from Firebase Auth

The recommended path is export firebase, which writes a migration package ready for import-package.

1. Export from Firebase

Export your users from the Firebase Console or using the Firebase CLI (firebase auth:export). This produces a JSON file with a users array.

2. Get password hash parameters

If you want to migrate passwords, get the hash parameters from Firebase Console > Authentication > Users > Password Hash Parameters. You need the signer key, salt separator, rounds, and memory cost.

3. Export to a migration package

workos-migrate export firebase \
  --from-file firebase-export.json \
  --output-dir ./migration-firebase \
  --signer-key <BASE64_KEY> \
  --salt-separator <BASE64_SEP> \
  --rounds 8 \
  --memory-cost 14 \
  --org-mapping orgs.csv

To also pull Identity Platform SAML/OIDC configs into the sso/ handoff CSVs, pass a service-account key file with --service-account-key <path> and --project-id <id> (or set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS and GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT / GCLOUD_PROJECT). If the project ID cannot be resolved, the export fails rather than silently skipping SSO.

Options:

• --from-file <path> - Path to the Firebase Auth JSON export (required)
• --source-tenant <name> - Optional tenant identifier recorded in the manifest.
• --name-split <strategy> - How to split displayName into first/last: first-space (default), last-space, or first-name-only
• --include-disabled - Include disabled users (excluded by default)
• --skip-passwords - Skip password hash encoding
• --org-mapping <path> - CSV mapping Firebase UIDs to organizations (firebase_uid,org_external_id,org_name)
• --role-mapping <path> - CSV mapping Firebase UIDs to roles (firebase_uid,role_slug)
• --service-account-key <path> + --project-id <id> - Enable Identity Platform SSO connection export

The transformer handles:

• Firebase scrypt to PHC format encoding ($firebase-scrypt$hash=...)
• displayName splitting into first_name and last_name
• Phone number, custom claims, and Firebase UID preservation in metadata
• Skipping users without an email address

4. Validate, import, and post-import

Continue to Validation, Import, and Post-Import below.

Migrating from AWS Cognito

1. Set up AWS credentials

Configure your AWS credentials using one of the standard methods:

• Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN)
• AWS credentials file (~/.aws/credentials)
• IAM role (when running on EC2/ECS/Lambda)

The Cognito exporter requires these IAM permissions:

• cognito-idp:ListUserPools
• cognito-idp:ListIdentityProviders
• cognito-idp:DescribeIdentityProvider
• cognito-idp:ListUsers

2. Export users and connections

The recommended path is to write a migration package that the import-package orchestrator can consume in a single step:

workos-migrate export cognito \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --user-pool-ids us-east-1_ABC123,us-east-1_DEF456 \
  --output-dir ./migration-cognito \
  --entities users,organizations,memberships,sso

This writes the canonical layout: users.csv, organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv, the sso/ handoff CSVs, and the workos_upload/ projection. By default each Cognito user pool maps to one WorkOS organization; pass --org-strategy connection for one org per identity provider (memberships then become header-only) or --org-strategy none to skip organization rows entirely.

Options:

• --entities <list> - users,organizations,memberships,sso.
• --org-strategy <strategy> - user-pool (default), connection, or none.
• --output-dir <dir> - Output directory for the migration package
• --saml-custom-entity-id-template <url> - Template for SAML custom Entity ID (default: urn:amazon:cognito:sp:{user_pool_id})
• --saml-custom-acs-url-template <url> - Template for SAML custom ACS URL (placeholders: {provider_name}, {user_pool_id}, {region})
• --oidc-custom-redirect-uri-template <url> - Template for OIDC custom redirect URI
• --skip-external-provider-users - Skip Cognito users whose userStatus=EXTERNAL_PROVIDER.

Note: Cognito does not expose password hashes via its API. The password_hash column will be blank for all users. Affected users will need to reset their password post-migration or rely on SSO + JIT provisioning via the migration proxy.

3. Migration proxy (optional)

For a seamless cutover where existing IdP configurations continue to work, see the reference proxy implementation in proxy-sample-cognito/. This Lambda handler routes per-tenant traffic between Cognito and WorkOS during the migration window.

4. Validate and import users

Continue to Validation, Import, and Post-Import below.

Custom CSV

If you already have a CSV in WorkOS format (see CSV Format above), skip straight to validation:

workos-migrate validate --csv my-users.csv
workos-migrate import --csv my-users.csv

CSV migration package (manual provider path)

For unsupported providers, you can hand-build a migration package and run it through the same import-package orchestrator the dedicated providers use:

# Scaffold an empty package skeleton (generate-package-template is an equivalent alias)
workos-migrate export csv --output-dir ./migration-csv

# Populate users.csv (and optionally organizations.csv, organization_memberships.csv,
# role_definitions.csv, user_role_assignments.csv) with the canonical headers from
# docs/migration-package.md.

# Validate the package against the contract
workos-migrate validate-package ./migration-csv

# Run it through the importer (or --plan / --dry-run first)
workos-migrate import-package ./migration-csv

validate-package checks the manifest schema, every canonical CSV header, every required file, manifest count consistency, and JSONL parseability. It's safe to run repeatedly — exit 0 means the package is ready for import-package.

Validation

Validate your CSV before importing to catch problems early:

workos-migrate validate --csv users.csv

The validator checks:

• Required fields (email is present and non-empty)
• Email format
• Duplicate emails
• Password hash format (valid bcrypt or firebase-scrypt structure)
• Organization reference consistency

Auto-fix

The --auto-fix flag corrects common issues automatically:

workos-migrate validate --csv users.csv --auto-fix --output users-fixed.csv

Auto-fix handles whitespace trimming, email lowercasing, and empty field cleanup.

Importing Users

Basic import

workos-migrate import --csv users.csv

Organization modes

User only (no org membership):

workos-migrate import --csv users.csv

Single org (all users into one organization):

workos-migrate import --csv users.csv --org-id org_01ABC

Multi-org (org per row, from CSV columns):

workos-migrate import --csv users.csv --create-org-if-missing

In multi-org mode, the importer reads org_id, org_external_id, or org_name from each row. Organizations are cached in memory to avoid repeated API lookups. If --create-org-if-missing is set, organizations referenced by name or external ID that don't exist in WorkOS are created automatically.

Performance options

workos-migrate import \
  --csv users.csv \
  --concurrency 20 \
  --rate-limit 50 \
  --workers 4 \
  --chunk-size 5000 \
  --job-id my-migration

• --concurrency <n> - Parallel API requests per worker (default: 10)
• --rate-limit <n> - Max requests per second across all workers (default: 50)
• --workers <n> - Worker threads for CPU distribution (default: 1, requires --job-id)
• --chunk-size <n> - Rows per checkpoint chunk (default: 1000)

Checkpoint and resume

For large migrations, use --job-id to enable checkpointing. If the process crashes or is interrupted, resume from where it left off:

# Start with checkpointing
workos-migrate import --csv users.csv --job-id my-migration

# Resume after interruption
workos-migrate import --csv users.csv --resume my-migration

Checkpoint state is stored in .workos-checkpoints/<job-id>/.

Dry run

Preview what the import would do without making any API calls:

workos-migrate import --csv users.csv --dry-run

Error output

Import errors are written to a JSONL file (default: errors.jsonl). Each line contains the email, error type, HTTP status, and message for a single failure.

Error Analysis

After an import, analyze errors to understand what went wrong and generate a retry CSV:

workos-migrate analyze \
  --errors errors.jsonl \
  --retry-csv retry.csv \
  --original-csv users.csv

The analyzer groups errors by pattern, classifies them as retryable or non-retryable, and suggests fixes. The retry CSV contains only the rows that failed with retryable errors, so you can re-import just those users.

Importing a migration package

Migration packages produced by export <provider> can be imported in one step with import-package:

# Plan only — print what would happen and exit
workos-migrate import-package ./migration-auth0 --plan

# Dry run — validate the package and write workos_import_summary.json with status=planned
workos-migrate import-package ./migration-auth0 --dry-run

# Live import
workos-migrate import-package ./migration-auth0

The orchestrator runs entities in this order:

1. Organizations (resolved or created during user import via --create-org-if-missing semantics).
2. Users + memberships (runImport on users.csv).
3. Role definitions (process-role-definitions on role_definitions.csv).
4. User-role assignments (per-org slices of user_role_assignments.csv).
5. TOTP enrollment (enroll-totp on totp_secrets.csv).
6. SSO connections — surfaced as handoff-only. The orchestrator never creates WorkOS SSO connections automatically. See sso/handoff_notes.md in the package for next steps.

Every run writes workos_import_summary.json (or --summary <path>) with per-entity status, totals, succeeded/failed counts, and warnings. Per-row errors land in workos_import_errors.jsonl (or --errors <path>).

Post-Import: TOTP and Roles

TOTP MFA enrollment

If your source system has TOTP secrets (e.g., from Auth0 or Clerk), you can enroll them in WorkOS after import:

workos-migrate enroll-totp \
  --input totp-secrets.csv \
  --totp-issuer "MyApp"

The input file can be CSV (email,totp_secret) or NDJSON (one JSON object per line with email and totp_secret or mfa_factors fields). Format is auto-detected from the file extension.

Options:

• --format <csv|ndjson> - Override auto-detection
• --concurrency <n> - Parallel requests (default: 5)
• --rate-limit <n> - Requests per second (default: 10)
• --totp-issuer <name> - Issuer shown in authenticator apps
• --dry-run - Validate without enrolling

Role definitions and assignment

Create roles and permissions in WorkOS from a CSV, then assign them to users:

# Create roles and permissions
workos-migrate process-role-definitions \
  --definitions role-definitions.csv

# Create roles and assign to users
workos-migrate process-role-definitions \
  --definitions role-definitions.csv \
  --user-mapping user-roles.csv \
  --org-id org_01ABC

Role definitions CSV (role_slug,role_name,role_type,permissions[,org_id]):

role_slug,role_name,role_type,permissions
admin,Administrator,environment,"read,write,delete"
viewer,Viewer,environment,read
org-admin,Org Admin,organization,"read,write",org_01ABC

User-role mapping CSV (email,role_slug):

email,role_slug
[email protected],admin
[email protected],viewer

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm run dev         # Run with tsx (no build step)
npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm test            # 120 tests across 10 suites

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines. Security issues should be reported privately as described in SECURITY.md.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.