Onfido

Onfido verifies a person's identity from a photo of their identity document and a selfie or video. Behind verify, it runs verify.identity() in the markets you route to it. Pick it for regulated flows, such as onboarding to financial services, where you need a document-based identity check across many countries.

verify:
  driver: onfido

Before you start

1. Get an Onfido account and a sandbox to build against.
2. Pick the regional environment that matches where your users' data must live, since Onfido runs separate regions.
3. Create an API token for each environment and keep it in your secrets manager.

Configure

verify:
  driver: twilio-verify     # phone and email checks
  identity: { us: onfido, default: onfido }   # market to identity driver; default serves the rest
  require: { us: high }                       # the level the market requires; onfido reaches high
  drivers:
    onfido:
      token: secret:ONFIDO_TOKEN              # the API token of the environment
      workflow: wf_123                        # the Studio workflow that runs document and selfie
      region: eu                              # eu, us or in; picks api.<region>.onfido.com

Use it

import { verify } from "mainsdk/verify";

export async function startCheck(user: string) {
  const started = await verify.identity({
    level: "high",
    market: "us",
    claims: ["age_over_18"],
    purpose: "Open an account",
    user,
    consent: { policy: "privacy-2026-10" },
  });
  return started.url;   // send the person to Onfido; later verify.identity.complete({ id: started.id })
}

Local development and testing

Use Onfido's sandbox with a sandbox token. In tests, set verify.identity.default: local: the local fake approves with code: "approve" and keeps nothing but the asked claims.

What MainSDK adds on top

One call for identity checks in every market, routed by identity, and swappable with no code change. Only the claims you ask for are kept, each labelled, with a consent record; a level the driver cannot reach fails with MAIN-VERIFY-0004 before the person is sent anywhere.

See Phone, email and identity checks.

Limits and notes

• Built verify driver (spec verify). It declares its own host, api.<region>.onfido.com, so network.allow does not change.
• Onfido reaches the high level.
• Identity results are personal data; label the fields that store them in db.
• verify is free and runs in your app.

Swap to or from it

verify:
  identity: { us: persona }   # was { us: onfido }

Results you keep live in your own db. Checks in progress at Onfido stay there.

FAQ

Does Onfido store the document images? Onfido processes them under its own terms; check its data retention settings for your account.

Next

• Phone, email and identity checks
• Persona and DigiLocker
• Swap a driver