diff --git a/auth/jwt/coverage_test.go b/auth/jwt/coverage_test.go
index 059491e..afff514 100644
--- a/auth/jwt/coverage_test.go
+++ b/auth/jwt/coverage_test.go
@@ -220,6 +220,23 @@ func TestCov_SpaceDelimited_UnmarshalJSON(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Fatalf("expected empty, got %v", s)
 		}
 	})
+	t.Run("array_values", func(t *testing.T) {
+		var s SpaceDelimited
+		json.Unmarshal([]byte(`["openid","profile"]`), &s)
+		if len(s) != 2 || s[0] != "openid" || s[1] != "profile" {
+			t.Fatalf("got %v", s)
+		}
+	})
+	t.Run("array_empty", func(t *testing.T) {
+		var s SpaceDelimited
+		json.Unmarshal([]byte(`[]`), &s)
+		if s == nil {
+			t.Fatal("expected non-nil empty SpaceDelimited, got nil")
+		}
+		if len(s) != 0 {
+			t.Fatalf("expected empty, got %v", s)
+		}
+	})
 	t.Run("invalid", func(t *testing.T) {
 		var s SpaceDelimited
 		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(`123`), &s); err == nil {
diff --git a/auth/jwt/types.go b/auth/jwt/types.go
index 5c61542..536a7f9 100644
--- a/auth/jwt/types.go
+++ b/auth/jwt/types.go
@@ -89,16 +89,30 @@ type SpaceDelimited []string
 // UnmarshalJSON decodes a space-separated string into a slice.
 // An empty string "" unmarshals to a non-nil empty SpaceDelimited{},
 // preserving the distinction from a nil (absent) SpaceDelimited.
+//
+// As a compatibility extension, it also accepts a JSON array of strings,
+// because some issuers (e.g. PaperOS) emit scope as [] instead of "".
 func (s *SpaceDelimited) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
 	var str string
-	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &str); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("space-delimited must be a string: %w: %w", ErrInvalidPayload, err)
-	}
-	if str == "" {
-		*s = SpaceDelimited{}
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &str); err == nil {
+		if str == "" {
+			*s = SpaceDelimited{}
+			return nil
+		}
+		*s = strings.Fields(str)
 		return nil
 	}
-	*s = strings.Fields(str)
+
+	// Fallback: accept a JSON array of strings (non-standard but used in the wild).
+	var ss []string
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &ss); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("space-delimited must be a string or array of strings: %w: %w", ErrInvalidPayload, err)
+	}
+	if ss == nil {
+		*s = SpaceDelimited{}
+	} else {
+		*s = SpaceDelimited(ss)
+	}
 	return nil
 }