Rochester-Built Startup Locke Launches Open Passkey, Aims to Eliminate Passwords for Developers

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Rochester-based startup is solving one of the internet’s most persistent friction points: passwords.

Locke, led by CEO Connor Peters, has announced the release of Open Passkey, a new, 100% free, open-source library designed to make passwordless authentication simple to implement across nearly any application. Alongside the library, the company is also launching Locke Gateway, a free, "backendless" authentication server that allows developers to deploy secure login systems without configuring infrastructure.

The release positions Locke at the intersection of developer tooling, cybersecurity, and the growing shift toward passkey-based authentication.

Open Passkey enables developers to integrate passwordless login into applications built with frameworks like React and Angular or even basic HTML without traditional setup complexity. By pairing the library with Locke Gateway, developers can deploy fully functional authentication systems with minimal effort and no server management.

“Developers should be able to go from idea to live product without getting bogged down in infrastructure,” said Peters. “We built Open Passkey and Gateway to remove one of the most frustrating barriers, authentication, so people can focus on building.”

The product addresses a growing pain point in modern software development. As AI tools accelerate coding and prototyping, deployment and infrastructure have become a disproportionate bottleneck. Authentication, in particular, remains one of the more complex components to implement securely.

Locke’s approach simplifies that process. Developers can integrate Open Passkey using a single package and connect to Locke Gateway as a provider, enabling passkey authentication and session management without standing up a backend. Applications can then be deployed directly to platforms like Netlify or Cloudflare, effectively allowing teams to launch full-stack applications at little to no cost.

The company says its infrastructure can scale significantly, with Gateway designed to support millions of users while operating on minimal compute resources.

Beyond ease of use, Locke is also positioning Open Passkey for the future of security. The library is designed to be post-quantum secure, meaning it will automatically adopt next-generation cryptographic standards as browsers begin supporting them.

Open Passkey is already compatible with 33 programming languages and frameworks, reflecting a broad push toward developer accessibility and adoption.

The company’s origin story is rooted in a practical problem. Before founding Locke, Peters worked as a systems administrator at a college, where password management consumed a significant portion of his time.

“I spent about 40 percent of my time resetting student and faculty passwords,” Peters said. “I knew who everyone was, but the computers didn’t.”

That experience informed Locke’s core thesis: identity systems should reflect how humans recognize trust, not rely on fragile strings of characters.

With Open Passkey now live on GitHub and Gateway available as a free service, Locke is betting that simplicity, scalability, and security can coexist, and that developers are ready to move beyond passwords for good.

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