[Enhancement]: Simulate Claims in Development

[JerryNixon]

What is it?

• Simulate custom token claims for development and testing scenarios.
• Allow testing of authentication and role-based policies without a live Azure Entra ID tenant.
• Provide simulator-claims under the Simulator provider for flexible role/claim injection during development.

Currently, using Simulator grants the default role authenticated, but doesn't allow injecting claims for policy testing. This enhancement introduces simulator-claims, letting developers test claims-based logic locally.

Configuration Example

{
  "authentication": {
    "provider": "Simulator",
    "simulator-claims": {
      "roles": ["admin"],
      "groups": ["dev-team"],
      "custom_claims": {
        "region": "US",
        "accessLevel": "developer"
      }
    }
  }
}

This lets developers test scenarios based on simulated roles and claims without needing Azure Entra ID.

Environment-Specific Config

To prevent accidental deployment of simulated claims to production, use environment-specific configuration files (e.g., appsettings.Development.json). This allows developers to safely use simulator-claims during development while keeping production configuration clean.

Benefits

• Test role-based access and claims scenarios without external dependencies.
• Ensure policies behave as expected in local environments.
• Use environment-specific config files to avoid deploying simulation settings to production.

Related Issues to Close

• Authentication provider: Simulator -> Customize token claims in config #842
• Move/rename "Authenticate-devmode-request" #865
• [Bug]: Cannot filter with custom role (access forbidden...) #2115
• Configuration - Specify which JWT claims pass through to MSSQL Session Context #1113