OpenID Connect (OIDC) is a standard for authenticating people online, introduced by the OpenID Foundation in 2014. It simplifies the authentication process and provides a seamless and secure way to log into various services. Vercel leverages OIDC to enhance the security of backend connectivity, enabling developers to replace long-lived credentials with more secure, temporary tokens. By using short-lived tokens issued by Vercel as an Identity Provider (IdP), developers can mitigate risks associated with storing static credentials and ensure consistent role-based access control across their entire infrastructure.