Shane - Thanks for the reply. Sorry I didn't find anything on the forums - guess I didn't use the right search string. Please understand that I'm in my first Seam project, so don't know all the nuances, so I have to ask - why is there no guarantee how many times the authenticate method will be called? Is this a bug? Is there a link where this is documented besides the forums? Thanks. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4101124#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...