Dirless is a complete Linux identity management system. Three core components run on your existing infrastructure. Identity sources are pluggable: use the web portal, sync from AWS IAM Identity Center, or both at the same time.
Core components
The central store for your identity data. Receives snapshots from any identity source, encrypts them with your public key, and serves them to agents on demand. Hosted on our 3-node global cluster, or self-hosted by you.
Runs on every Linux host. Polls the backend and writes a fresh identity snapshot to a local database. If the backend is unreachable, the last snapshot keeps NSS working - no lockout. Runs on any Linux host, anywhere.
A small shared library that hooks into getpwnam,
getgrnam, and friends. Reads from local storage only -
zero network calls at lookup time. Works on any Linux distro.
Identity sources (use one or both)
Add users directly through the Dirless web portal. No AWS account, no syncer, no external identity provider needed. Users get consistent UIDs and SSH key management just like any other identity source. A great starting point and useful for service accounts or contractors alongside any cloud IdP.
Optional. Runs on an EC2 instance inside your AWS account. Pulls users, groups, and memberships from IAM Identity Center using the EC2 instance role - no static credentials ever stored. Pushes snapshots to the backend automatically.