## Why Log Your Customers Into Your Docs?

Logging users into your ReadMe docs allows you to show custom, personalized, interactive information to each user, drastically improving their experience using your documentation. You can:

• Automatically show each user their own API Keys in the API Reference and elsewhere in the docs. To demonstrate: in our docs, we use the <span>\<</span>\<keys:id>> variable to show your ReadMe API Key, like this:

• Provide users with working code samples they can just copy and paste. No separate trip to grab an API key required!

• Create interactive API documentation—users can call the API directly from the API Reference.

• Login is a prerequiste for some neat [Developer Metrics](🔗) features, for example, showing the user the history of their API calls directly in the documentation.

## JWT Setup

Setting this up is easy if:

• you're a developer

• your company already has a method for logging in your customers that you can build on. (hint: if your customers authenticate in order to use your API, then you've got a log in method).

The flow is simple:

1. User clicks the Login link in ReadMe and is directed to a Login page on your site.

2. User logs in (or is already logged in).

3. Your site creates a JWT redirect URL with the user's information.

4. User is redirected to your documentation and logged into ReadMe!

## Node.js Demo

This guide will go into setup details below, but if you would prefer to jump straight into an example, we have a GitHub repo in Node.js to play around with:

[readmeio/readme-custom-login-demo](🔗).

## Redirect Users from ReadMe to Custom Login URL

The first step of the JWT login flow is that the user clicks the Login link in ReadMe and is redirected to a Login page on your site, rather than ReadMe's native login flow.

In your project's dash, under Appearance > Site Navigation, there is a section called Custom Login at the bottom of the page. Here you can set a Login URL that users will be directed to via the Login button in your documentation.

For an example of a custom login page in Jade, see the one in our [Node.js demo](🔗).

## JWT Redirect

Once you have sent your user over to your company's site via the Custom Login page redirect, you log them in with your company's existing login method. Then, you'll need to send their credentials (including their API key if you want interactive API docs) back to ReadMe. We support that you send those credentials back using [JWT](🔗), and there are packages to help in almost every language!

The following example is in Node.js. It takes info about a user you already signed in via your company's method, and returns credentials for the user that you can send to ReadMe via the `auth_token` query string.

Note that the preceding code sample only covers the steps _between_ logging in your user via your company's existing method, and sending the user credentials back to ReadMe via JWT. For the code sample's context, see our [Node.js demo](🔗).

After ReadMe receives the JWT-signed credentials for your user (`auth_token`) in the above Node.js example), ReadMe uses these credentials to:

• Log the user into ReadMe

• Populate the API docs with the API key contained in the JWT-signed credentials, so the user can experience interactive API docs.