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Clerk environment variables

You can use environment variables to configure how your Clerk app behaves, such as where users are redirected after signing out of their account, or whether or not Clerk's telemetry should be enabled.

This page is a reference for all available Clerk environment variables.

Compatibility

In the frontend, Clerk's environment variables work for most popular meta-frameworks, such as Next.js or Remix.

If you're building a pure React app, you should use the props on the components you're using. For example, to force users to redirect to a specific URL after signing in, you would use the signInForceRedirectUrl prop on <ClerkProvider> rather than the CLERK_SIGN_IN_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL environment variable.

Sign-in and sign-up redirects

Components, such as <ClerkProvider>, <SignIn>, and more, provide props for you to specify where users will be redirected. For example, <ClerkProvider> has the signInFallbackRedirectUrl and signUpFallbackRedirectUrl props.

However, it's recommended to use environment variables instead of these props whenever possible.

For the FORCE and FALLBACK variables, it's recommended to define both sign-up and sign-in variables, as some users may choose to sign up instead after attempting to sign in, and vice versa.

VariableDescriptionExample
CLERK_SIGN_IN_URLThe full URL or path to your sign-in page. Needs to point to your primary application on the client-side. Required for a satellite application in a development instance./sign-in
CLERK_SIGN_UP_URLThe full URL or path to your sign-up page. Needs to point to your primary application on the client-side. Required for a satellite application in a development instance./sign-up
CLERK_SIGN_IN_FORCE_REDIRECT_URLIf provided, this URL will always be redirected to after the user signs in./dashboard
CLERK_SIGN_UP_FORCE_REDIRECT_URLIf provided, this URL will always be redirected to after the user signs up./dashboard
CLERK_SIGN_IN_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URLThe fallback URL to redirect to after the user signs in, if there's no redirect_url in the path already. Defaults to /./dashboard
CLERK_SIGN_UP_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URLThe fallback URL to redirect to after the user signs up, if there's no redirect_url in the path already. Defaults to /./dashboard
VariableDescriptionExample
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_URLThe full URL or path to your sign-in page. Needs to point to your primary application on the client-side. Required for a satellite application in a development instance./sign-in
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_URLThe full URL or path to your sign-up page. Needs to point to your primary application on the client-side. Required for a satellite application in a development instance./sign-up
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_FORCE_REDIRECT_URLIf provided, this URL will always be redirected to after the user signs in./dashboard
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_FORCE_REDIRECT_URLIf provided, this URL will always be redirected to after the user signs up./dashboard
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URLThe fallback URL to redirect to after the user signs in, if there's no redirect_url in the path already. Defaults to /./dashboard
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URLThe fallback URL to redirect to after the user signs up, if there's no redirect_url in the path already. Defaults to /./dashboard

Clerk Publishable and Secret Keys

To access your Clerk app in your local project, you must specify your app's Publishable Keys for use in the frontend, and Secret Keys for use in the backend.

You can find these keys on the API keys page in the Clerk Dashboard.

VariableDescription
CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEYYour Clerk app's Publishable Key. It will be prefixed with pk_test_ in development instances and pk_live_ in production instances.
CLERK_SECRET_KEYYour Clerk app's Secret Key, which you can find in the Clerk Dashboard. It will be prefixed with sk_test_ in development instances and sk_live_ in production instances. Do not expose this on the frontend with a public environment variable.
VariableDescription
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEYYour Clerk app's Publishable Key, which you can find in the Clerk Dashboard. It will be prefixed with pk_test_ in development instances and pk_live_ in production instances.
CLERK_SECRET_KEYYour Clerk app's Secret Key, which you can find in the Clerk Dashboard. It will be prefixed with sk_test_ in development instances and sk_live_ in production instances. Do not expose this on the frontend with a public environment variable.

API and SDK configuration

The following environment variables enable you to configure API and SDK behavior, such as what version of the SDK your project uses, what proxy URL you use to connect to Clerk's Frontend API, and more.

VariableDescription
CLERK_JS_URLSets the URL that @clerk/clerk-react should hot-load @clerk/clerk-js from. CLERK_JS does the same but is deprecated.
CLERK_JS_VERSIONSets the npm version for @clerk/clerk-js.
CLERK_API_URLSets the Clerk API URL for debugging. Defaults to "https://api.clerk.com"
CLERK_API_VERSIONSets the version of the Clerk API to use. Defaults to "v1"
CLERK_JWT_KEYSets the JWT verification key that Clerk will use to provide networkless JWT session token verification. Refer to Manual JWT verification.
CLERK_FAPISets the URL to your Clerk apps' Frontend API.
CLERK_PROXY_URLSets the URL for your proxy.
VariableDescription
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_JS_URLSets the URL that @clerk/clerk-react should hot-load @clerk/clerk-js from. NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_JS does the same but is deprecated.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_JS_VERSIONSets the npm version for @clerk/clerk-js.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_API_URLSets the Clerk API URL for debugging. Defaults to "https://api.clerk.com"
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_API_VERSIONSets the version of the Clerk API to use. Defaults to "v1"
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_FAPISets the URL to your Clerk app's Frontend API.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PROXY_URLSets the URL for your proxy.
CLERK_ENCRYPTION_KEYSets the encryption key to securely propagate clerkMiddleware dynamic keys during request time. A 128-bit, pseudorandom value should be used. See Dynamic keys to learn more.
CLERK_JWT_KEYSets the JWT verification key that Clerk will use to provide networkless JWT session token verification. Refer to Manual JWT verification.

Satellite domains

Clerk supports sharing sessions across different domains by adding one or many satellite domains to an application. See the satellite domains guide for more information.

VariableDescription
CLERK_DOMAINSets your satellite application's domain. Required to share sessions across multiple domains.
CLERK_IS_SATELLITEIndicates whether or not the application is a satellite application.
VariableDescription
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_DOMAINSets your satellite application's domain. Required to share sessions across multiple domains.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_IS_SATELLITEIndicates whether or not the application is a satellite application.

Webhooks

The following environment variable allows you to protect your webhook signing secret. It is read by Clerk's verifyWebhook() function.

VariableDescription
CLERK_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_SECRETThe signing secret for your webhook.

Telemetry

Clerk provides environment variables for opting out of telemetry data collection. See the telemetry documentation for more information.

VariableDescription
CLERK_TELEMETRY_DISABLEDSet this to 1 to disable Clerk's telemetry data collection.
CLERK_TELEMETRY_DEBUGSet this to 1 to prevent telemetry data from being sent to Clerk. It will be logged to the console instead.
VariableDescription
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_TELEMETRY_DISABLEDSet this to 1 to disable Clerk's telemetry data collection.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_TELEMETRY_DEBUGSet this to 1 to prevent telemetry data from being sent to Clerk. It will be logged to the console instead.

Deprecated

The following environment variables are deprecated but still supported to avoid breaking changes. Don't use them in new projects. It is recommended to switch to using the recommended alternatives in old projects.

VariableDescription
CLERK_AFTER_SIGN_UP_URLFull URL or path to navigate to after successful sign up. Defaults to /. CLERK_SIGN_UP_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URL and CLERK_SIGN_UP_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL have priority and should be used instead.
CLERK_AFTER_SIGN_IN_URLFull URL or path to navigate to after successful sign in. Defaults to /. CLERK_SIGN_IN_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URL and CLERK_SIGN_IN_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL have priority and should be used instead.
VariableDescription
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_AFTER_SIGN_UP_URLFull URL or path to navigate to after successful sign up. Defaults to /. NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL have priority and should be used instead.
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_AFTER_SIGN_IN_URLFull URL or path to navigate to after successful sign in. Defaults to /. NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_FALLBACK_REDIRECT_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL have priority and should be used instead.

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