# Ruby on Rails integration

The Clerk Ruby SDK provides a seamless integration with Ruby on Rails through a Rack middleware and dedicated Rails helpers. When you add the Clerk gem to your Rails application, the middleware is automatically included in your application's middleware stack.

1. ## Install `clerk-sdk-ruby`

   The [Clerk Ruby SDK](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/ruby/overview.md) provides a range of backend utilities to simplify user authentication and management in your application.

   1. Add the following code to your application's `Gemfile`.

      filename: Gemfile
      ```ruby
      gem 'clerk-sdk-ruby', require: "clerk"
      ```
   2. Run the following command to install the SDK:

      filename: terminal
      ```sh
      bundle install
      ```
2. ## Configuration

   The configuration object provides a flexible way to configure the SDK. When a configuration value is not explicitly provided, it will fall back to checking the corresponding [environment variable](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/ruby/overview.md#available-environment-variables). You must provide your Clerk Secret Key.

   The following example shows how to set up your configuration object:

   ```ruby
   Clerk.configure do |c|
     c.secret_key = `{{secret}}` # if omitted: ENV["CLERK_SECRET_KEY"] - API calls will fail if unset
     c.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT) # if omitted, no logging
   end
   ```

   For more information, see [Faraday's documentation](https://lostisland.github.io/faraday/#/).

## Example: Access the `clerk` object

To access Clerk's authentication functionality in your controllers, include the `Clerk::Authenticatable` concern. This gives your controller and views access to the `clerk` helper, which provides access to the current session claims such as `clerk.user` and `clerk.organization`.

filename: app/controllers/application\_controller.rb
```ruby
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include Clerk::Authenticatable

  private

  # If the user is not authenticated, redirect to the sign-in page
  def require_clerk_session!
    # The `CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL` env var must be set or the `sign_in_url` method will fail
    redirect_to clerk.sign_in_url unless clerk.session
  end
end
```

## Example: Protect routes

To protect specific controllers or actions, you can add a `before_action` callback that uses the `require_clerk_session!` method to check for an authenticated Clerk session. This is particularly useful for securing admin sections or sensitive operations.

```ruby
class AdminController < ApplicationController
  # Protect routes with the `require_clerk_session!` method
  before_action :require_clerk_session!

  def index
    # ...
  end
end
```

## Example: Reverification

For actions requiring additional security, Clerk provides a `:require_reverification!` filter that prompts users to re-authenticate. This filter accepts an optional [preset](https://clerk.com/docs/reference/ruby/overview.md#reverification) parameter to customize the reverification requirements.

In the following example, all actions in the `AdminController` will be protected from unauthenticated users. If the user is authenticated, they will be required to reverify their session before accessing the `destroy` action.

```ruby
class AdminController < ApplicationController
  # Protect routes with the `require_clerk_session!` method
  before_action :require_clerk_session!
  # Protect `destroy` with the `require_reverification!` method
  # Reverification preset is set to `LAX`
  before_action :require_reverification!, only: :destroy, preset: Clerk::StepUp::Preset::LAX


  def index
    # ...
  end

  def destroy
    # ...
  end
end
```

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