libkc - Keycloak Client Library

Shared C library for Keycloak HTTP operations, used by both X3 Services and Nefarious IRCd.

Overview

libkc provides a portable Keycloak REST API client with:

• Async HTTP (kc_http) - Non-blocking HTTP via curl_multi, driven by an application-provided event loop
• Sync HTTP (kc_http_sync) - Blocking HTTP with retry logic and latency stats
• Keycloak REST client (kc_keycloak) - Token management, user CRUD, group operations, token introspection
• JWT validation (kc_jwt) - Local RS256 JWT validation with JWKS caching
• URL builders (kc_url) - All Keycloak REST API endpoint URLs
• Webhook delivery (kc_webhook) - HTTP webhook notifications for user events
• Caching (kc_cache) - User ID and representation caches with configurable TTL
• Base64 (kc_base64) - Base64/base64url encode/decode (used by JWT)

Architecture

libkc is application-agnostic. It requires two adapter interfaces at init:

• Event loop adapter (kc_event.h) - Timer and file descriptor registration for async I/O
• Log adapter (kc_log.h) - Logging callback with severity levels

#include<kc/kc.h>#include<kc/kc_keycloak.h>/* Provide event loop and logging adapters */kc_init(&my_event_ops, &my_log_ops);
/* Configure and use Keycloak operations */structkc_configconfig= {
.base_url="http://keycloak:8080",
.realm="master",
.client_id="my-client",
.client_secret="secret"
};
kc_keycloak_init(&config);

Modules

Header	Source	Description
kc.h	kc.c	Init, shutdown, logging macros
kc_event.h	-	Event loop adapter interface
kc_log.h	-	Log adapter interface
kc_realm.h	-	struct kc_realm (base_url + realm name)
kc_http.h	kc_http.c	Async HTTP (curl_multi)
kc_http_sync.h	kc_http_sync.c	Sync HTTP (curl_easy) with retry
kc_keycloak.h	kc_keycloak.c	Keycloak REST API client (async)
kc_url.h	kc_url.c	Keycloak endpoint URL builders
kc_jwt.h	kc_jwt.c	JWKS fetch + JWT RS256 validation
kc_base64.h	kc_base64.c	Base64 encode/decode
kc_cache.h	kc_cache.c	User ID + representation caches
kc_webhook.h	kc_webhook.c	Webhook HTTP delivery

Building

Dependencies

• libcurl (libcurl4-openssl-dev)
• jansson (libjansson-dev)
• OpenSSL (libssl-dev) - for JWT/JWKS support

Build

autoreconf -fi
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make install

Linking

# pkg-config style (if installed)
gcc myapp.c -lkc -lcurl -ljansson -lssl -lcrypto
# Headers install to <prefix>/include/kc/
#include <kc/kc.h>
#include <kc/kc_keycloak.h>

Integration

X3 Services

X3 links against libkc and provides adapters in:

• x3_kc_adapter.c - Bridges X3's ioset event loop to kc_event_ops
• x3_kc_bridge.c - Bridges X3's HTTP submission to libkc's async HTTP

Nefarious IRCd

Nefarious provides its own adapters:

• ircd_kc_adapter.c - Bridges Nefarious's event engine to kc_event_ops

License

GPL-2.0-or-later (matching X3 and Nefarious)