Sphinx (v1)
SPHINX:v2 introduces a unified Verification data block but its implementation is not yet finalized. Use SPHINX:v1 for all production flows.
Agent-assisted or automated document-based identity verification via IDnow's Sphinx service
Verifies the end user's identity by routing the session to IDnow's Sphinx service, which performs document analysis through either a live video session with an agent (VideoIdent) or a fully automated process (AutoIdent). Results are returned as a DocumentVerification data block.
Configuration
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
config.live.shortname | string | Yes | Sphinx shortname for the live environment. Provided by IDnow during onboarding. |
config.staging.shortname | string | Yes | Sphinx shortname for the staging environment. Provided by IDnow during onboarding. |
handoff | boolean | No | When true, redirects the player immediately when the identification enters a pending review state (REVIEW_PENDING, CHECK_PENDING, or FRAUD_SUSPICION_PENDING) and resumes polling in the background. Uses the session redirectUrl if configured; otherwise shows a submission-complete message. Default: false. |
webJourneyOnly | boolean | No | When true, the redirect URL returned to the player is constructed as the Sphinx web journey URL (derived from the onboarding base URL, shortname, and identification ID) instead of the channel chooser redirect URL. Default: false. |
inputSources | object | No | Maps upstream step IDs to data blocks forwarded to Sphinx. See Input mapping. |
inputSources.basicIdentity | string | No | ID of an upstream step whose BasicIdentity output should be forwarded to Sphinx for identity data cross-checking. |
inputSources.extendedIdentity | string | No | ID of an upstream step whose ExtendedIdentity output should be forwarded to Sphinx for identity data cross-checking. |
Input data blocks
| Data block | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
BasicIdentity | No | Identity data forwarded to Sphinx when inputSources.basicIdentity is configured. Used for cross-checking against document data. |
ExtendedIdentity | No | Extended identity data forwarded to Sphinx when inputSources.extendedIdentity is configured. Used for cross-checking against document data. |
Verdicts
| Verdict | Description |
|---|---|
verified | The document was successfully processed and identity data was extracted. The Sphinx service accepted the result — either the automated or agent-assisted analysis passed. |
fraud_detected | The document was identified as fraudulent. Identity data may have been extracted and is available for manual review. |
Output data blocks
| Verdict | Data blocks produced |
|---|---|
verified | BasicIdentity, ExtendedIdentity, DocumentData, DocumentImages, DocumentVerification |
fraud_detected | BasicIdentity, ExtendedIdentity, DocumentData, DocumentImages, DocumentVerification |
Testing
Before going live, it is important to verify that your integration handles the full range of identification outcomes correctly — from successful verifications to fraud detections, aborts, and review delays.
IDnow provides a Test-Robot service on the TEST environment that simulates the agent side of an identification automatically. This lets you trigger and observe different end-to-end scenarios — such as a happy path, a fraud case, or a canceled ident — and confirm that your application correctly receives and processes the results (e.g. via webhook or API response). Test-Robot is not a replacement for QA engineers, but a tool to validate your integration during development.
Two identification types are supported:
- AutoIdent (AI) — Fully automated, app-based identification. See the AutoIdent Test-Robot documentation.
- VideoIdent (VI) — Agent-assisted video identification. See the VideoIdent Test-Robot documentation.