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Add GitHub as a social connection

You will learn the following:

  • Use GitHub to authenticate users with OAuth

Before you start

Enabling OAuth with GitHub allows your users to sign up and sign in to your Clerk app with their GitHub account.

Configure for your development instance

For development instances, Clerk uses preconfigured shared OAuth credentials and redirect URIs—no other configuration is needed.

  1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the SSO connections page.
  2. Select Add connection and select For all users.
  3. In the Choose provider dropdown, select GitHub.
  4. Select Add connection.

Configure for your production instance

For production instances, you must provide custom credentials.

To make the setup process easier, it's recommended to keep two browser tabs open: one for the Clerk Dashboard and one for GitHub's Developer Settings.

Enable GitHub as a social connection in Clerk

  1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the SSO connections page.
  2. Select Add connection and choose For all users.
  3. In the Choose provider dropdown, select GitHub.
  4. Ensure that both Enable for sign-up and sign-in and Use custom credentials are toggled on.
  5. Save the Authorization Callback URL somewhere secure. Keep the modal and page open.

Create a GitHub app

  1. In the left sidebar of your GitHub's Developer Settings, select OAuth Apps.
  2. Select New OAuth app. You'll be redirected to the Register a new OAuth app page.
  3. Complete the required fields. In Authorization Callback URL, paste the Authorization Callback URL you saved from the Clerk Dashboard.
  4. Select Register application. You'll be redirected to your app's General page.
  5. Select Generate a new client secret. Save the Client ID and Client Secret somewhere secure.

Set the Client ID and Client Secret in the Clerk Dashboard

  1. Navigate back to the Clerk Dashboard where the modal should still be open. Paste the Client ID and Client Secret values that you saved into the respective fields.
  2. Select Add connection.

Note

If the modal or page is no longer open, navigate to the SSO connections page in the Clerk Dashboard. Select the connection. Under Use custom credentials, paste the values into their respective fields.

Test your connection

The simplest way to test your connection is to visit your Clerk app's Account Portal, which is available for all Clerk apps out-of-the-box.

  1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the Account Portal page.
  2. Next to the Sign-in URL, select Visit. The URL should resemble:
  • For development – https://your-domain.accounts.dev/sign-in
  • For production – https://accounts.your-domain.com/sign-in
  1. Sign in with your connection's credentials.

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