Express Quickstart
You will learn the following:
- Install
@clerk/express
- Set your Clerk API keys
- Add
clerkMiddleware()
to your application - Protect your routes using
requireAuth()
Before you start
Example repository
Learn how to integrate Clerk into your Express backend for secure user authentication and management. This guide covers backend implementation only and requires a Clerk frontend SDK in order for any of this to work.
Install @clerk/express
Clerk's Express SDK ships with a variety of helpers for the backend to make user authentication easier.
To get started using Clerk with Express, add the SDK to your project:
Add the following keys to your .env
file. These keys can always be retrieved from the API keys page in the Clerk Dashboard.
- In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the API keys page.
- In the Quick Copy section, copy your Clerk Publishable and Secret Keys.
- Paste your keys into your
.env
file.
The final result should resemble the following:
This guide uses dotenv
to load the environment variables. Run the following command to install it:
Add clerkMiddleware()
to your application
The clerkMiddleware()
function checks the request's cookies and headers for a session JWT and, if found, attaches the Auth
object to the request
object under the auth
key.
Protect your routes using requireAuth()
To protect your routes, use the requireAuth()
middleware. This middleware functions similarly to clerkMiddleware()
, but also protects your routes by redirecting unauthenticated users to the sign-in page.
In the following example, requireAuth()
is used to protect the /protected
route. If the user is not authenticated, they are redirected to the '/sign-in' route. If the user is authenticated, the req.auth
object is used to get the userId
, which is passed to clerkClient.users.getUser()
to fetch the current user's User
object.
Use middleware to protect routes
Learn how to protect specific routes from unauthenticated users.
Protect routes based on authorization status
Learn how to protect a route based on both authentication and authorization status.
Express SDK reference
Learn more about additional Express SDK methods.
Deploy to Production
Learn how to deploy your Clerk app to production.
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