In the context of Ory, a flow is an important element of Ory's self-service APIs. It is used to accomplish a variety of goals such as user login, user logout, user registration, changing account settings, account verification, and account recovery. Flows are standardized, meaning they run the same basic operations, regardless of which specific flow is integrated. The self-service API is split to integrate with two types of applications - browser and native. The reason for the API split is the security measures necessary for the different application types. For example, the API sets a CSRF cookie for browser applications. For native applications, CSRF cookie isn't required and isn't set. A flow in Ory consists of five operations: 1. Creating the flow for the specific goal and application type, for example user login in a native app. 2. Using the flow data to render the UI. 3. Submitting the flow with user data, such as username and password. 4. Potentially handling errors, such as invalid user input and going back to step 2. 5. Handling the successful submission. Flows can consist of multiple methods. For example, a login flow can have the

password

and

oidc

methods. Flows can be completed by only one method at a time. For more details, you can refer to the [Ory documentation](https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/bring-your-own-ui/custom-ui-basic-integration#flows).

The

flow

parameter is unique for each instance of a specific method. It does not remain the same for every execution of the method. For example, in the context of the

updateLoginFlow

or

updateSettingsFlow

methods, the

flow

parameter represents the Login Flow ID or Settings Flow ID respectively. The value for this parameter comes from the

flow

URL Query parameter sent to your application (e.g.

/login?flow=abcde

or

/settings?flow=abcde

). Each time a new login or settings flow is initiated, a new unique

flow

ID is generated and used. This ensures that each flow instance is properly tracked and managed. You can refer to the [Ory API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/reference/api) for more details.

No, you cannot manually set the

flow

to any value you want. The

flow

ID is generated by the Ory system when a new flow (like a login or settings flow) is initiated. This ID is used to track and manage the specific instance of the flow. The value for the

flow

parameter comes from the

flow

URL Query parameter sent to your application (e.g.

/login?flow=abcde

or

/settings?flow=abcde

). Each time a new flow is initiated, a new unique

flow

ID is generated. You can refer to the [Ory API Reference](https://www.ory.sh/docs/reference/api) for more details.

You're welcome! If you have any more questions about Ory or anything else, feel free to ask. Happy to help!