Hi Descope team! Quick architecture question about Descope Flows: Is there a way to check whether a user exists (based on an entered email) and branch the flow before triggering any authentication step (OTP, password, etc.)?

Something like a condition for

unauthUser.userId is not empty

Hi @Chris Carper, thank you for the suggestion. Just to clarify: my understanding is that

unauthUser.userId

only becomes populated after an authentication-related step runs (e.g., OTP, password, OAuth, etc.), correct? In our case, we’re trying to branch immediately after an email input screen, before triggering any authentication step. At that point in the flow, we only have

form.email

, and

unauthUser

hasn’t been resolved yet (as far as my understanding goes). So the condition would always evaluate as empty until after something like OTP or password runs. The reason this matters is that for returning users who already have WebAuthn enabled, we want them to authenticate instantly via WebAuthn only, without forcing an OTP step first just to determine existence. So I think the core issue is that we’re trying to branch on user existence prior to authentication, and I’m not sure whether that’s supported within Descope Flows?

unauthUser items do populate before the auth method has been completed. See attached example flow

Moving this discussion to a new thread to avoid confusion: https://authtown.slack.com/archives/C04490U8M7A/p1771853612735489