Best Approach for Providing Secure Access to External Users in a Pega Application

General
1

Hi Everyone,

We have an existing Pega application, and there is a new requirement to provide access to external users (customers, partners, or third-party users) so they can securely access and use the application.

We are currently evaluating the best authentication and user management approach and would appreciate guidance from the community on industry best practices.

Thanks & Regards,
Satish Reddy

2

Do they have SSO login available using IDP ? If yes then you can explore deep linking assignments. You have to construct assignments url and send it via email. If not and users are completely external users, then you will have to go with Web embed feature.

3

If the external users normally do quick actions and questions (“what’s my case status?”, “start a request”) from an AI tool users already use, accessing Pega via MCP may be an option. This article shows an example including the authentication (OAuth 2.0): How to expose Pega as MCP server for external AI clients (Infinity '26) .

  • Note that MCP should be treated as a secondary channel. It usually shouldn’t replace the portal for regulated submissions.

If the external users need to do more structured, regulated steps that need a guaranteed UI and accessibility, then I would consider Web Embed or other alternatives.

4

We have couple of options

  1. Web Embed - if you want to Embed Pega Portal in the 3rd party application.
  2. Agentic Assignments in Infinity 26 - Support for External Users to perform their assignments
  3. Create a persona for external users to login to Pega portal (if they can login through SSO/Custom Authentication)