Matrix integration

WorkAdventure can be integrated with a Matrix server to provide a chat in the game. In order to do so, you will first need to set up OpenID Connect authentication on both WorkAdventure and your Matrix server.

We have tested this integration with Synapse.

Architecture

Both WorkAdventure and Synapse must be configured to use the same OpenID Connect provider.

graph LR
    A[WorkAdventure] --> B[OpenID Connect Provider]
    C[Synapse] --> B[OpenID Connect Provider]
    A --> C

Synapse configuration

OpenID Connect provider

Follow the documentation at https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/openid.html to configure Synapse with your OpenID Connect provider.

Some important parts of the configuration are:

Depending on your OpenID Connect provider, you will need to use the user_mapping_provider option to map the OpenID Connect users to a Matrix user ID. The hardest part is finding the right value for the local part of the identifier. This is the part before the : in the Matrix user ID (e.g. @localpart:matrix.org).

For example, if your OpenID Connect provider returns the email claim, you can use the following configuration:

oidc_providers:
  - idp_id: <some-id>
    idp_name: <some-name>
    issuer: "https://<provider-url>"
    
    # Use skip_verification if your OpenID Connect provider is not using a valid certificate or is using HTTP instead of HTTPS.
    # skip_verification: true
    client_id: "<client-id>"
    client_secret: "<client-secret>"
    scopes: ["openid", "email", "profile"]

    # In case your OpenID Connect provider does not provide the claims in the ID token, but only provides them in the userinfo endpoint, use the option below:
    # user_profile_method: "userinfo_endpoint"

    user_mapping_provider:
      config:
        # Here, we are using the beginning of the email as the local part of the Matrix user ID.
        # For example, if the email is "john.doe@example", the local part will be "john.doe".
        # You can customize this to your needs.
        localpart_template: "{{ user.email.split('@')[0] }}"
        display_name_template: "{{ user.name }}"
        email_template: "{{ user.email }}"

Use the sso.client_whitelist option to skip the Matrix "Continue to your account" page. You should whitelist the URL of your WorkAdventure instance. Don't forget to end the URL with a /.

sso:
  client_whitelist:
    # Replace the URL below with the URL of your WorkAdventure instance. Don't forget the trailing slash.
    - http://play.workadventure.localhost/

Administrator

In addition to providing the OpenID Connect configuration, you will need to provide an administrator user to the WorkAdventure integration. This user will be used by WorkAdventure to create rooms and invite users to those rooms.

You can create a new user in Synapse using the register_new_matrix_user script:

register_new_matrix_user -u @admin-wa:myserver.com -p mypassword -c /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml -a http://localhost:8008

See https://manpages.debian.org/testing/matrix-synapse/register_new_matrix_user.1.en.html

Configuring WorkAdventure to point to the Synapse server

With docker-compose

If you are using docker-compose to start WorkAdventure, you can set the following environment variables in your .env file:

# The internal URL of the Matrix server. This is the URL that the WorkAdventure server will use to communicate with the Matrix server.
# If your Matrix server is running on the same Docker host as WorkAdventure, you can use the container name as the hostname.
# If your Matrix server is running out of Docker, use the full URL.
MATRIX_API_URI=
# The public URL of the Matrix server. This is the URL that the WorkAdventure clients will use to communicate with the Matrix server.
MATRIX_PUBLIC_URI=
# A valid Matrix user that will be used to create rooms and invite users.
MATRIX_ADMIN_USER=
MATRIX_ADMIN_PASSWORD=

With the Helm chart

If you are using the Helm chart to deploy WorkAdventure, you can set the following values in your values.yaml file:

values.yaml

play:
  env:
    # The internal URL of the Matrix server. This is the URL that the WorkAdventure server will use to communicate with the Matrix server.
    # If your Matrix server is running on the same Kubernetes namespace as WorkAdventure, you can use the service name as the hostname.
    # If your Matrix server is running out of the Kubernetes namespace, use the full URL.
    MATRIX_API_URI: ""
    # The public URL of the Matrix server. This is the URL that the WorkAdventure clients will use to communicate with the Matrix server.
    MATRIX_PUBLIC_URI: ""
    # A valid Matrix user that will be used to create rooms and invite users.
    MATRIX_ADMIN_USER: ""
  secretEnv:
    MATRIX_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ""

Custom Matrix homeservers (not the reference Synapse setup)

WorkAdventure is tested against a Synapse-style stack with OpenID Connect configured as described above. If you use another Matrix server (Dendrite, Conduit, commercial hosting, etc.) or a heavily customized Synapse, be aware that:

1. The same OIDC issuer must be trusted by both WorkAdventure and the Matrix server, and user mapping to stable Matrix IDs must be consistent; mismatches break login or room membership.
2. Profile APIs (/profile display name and avatar) must behave per the Matrix spec. WorkAdventure syncs the in-game name and WOKA image to the user’s global Matrix profile; servers that restrict profile updates or media uploads may cause avatars or names not to match in chat.
3. E2E encryption uses the matrix-js-sdk Rust crypto path; very old or unusual server configurations might surface interoperability issues—check client and server logs if sync or decryption fails.
4. Federation is not required for WorkAdventure’s own flows, but if you federate users across rooms, ensure your homeserver’s federation and identity settings match your expectations.

If something fails: verify MATRIX_PUBLIC_URI / MATRIX_API_URI from both browser and server, confirm OIDC client registration (separate clients for WA and Matrix), and compare with a known-good Synapse setup from this repo’s docker-compose example. For application-level behaviour, see Matrix developer notes.

Developer notes

If you are looking for a developer description of the WorkAdventure / Matrix integration, you can find it in the Matrix developer notes.