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getToken()

Retrieves a token for a JWT Template that is defined on the JWT templates page in the Clerk Dashboard.

function getToken(sessionId: string, template: string): Promise<Token>

Parameters

  • Name
    sessionId
    Type
    string
    Description

    The ID of the session to retrieve a token for.

  • Name
    template
    Type
    string
    Description

    The name of the JWT template from the Clerk Dashboard to generate a new token from. For example: 'firebase', 'grafbase', or your custom template's name.

Example

Note

Importing clerkClient varies based on your framework. Refer to the Backend SDK overview for usage details, including guidance on how to access the userId and other properties.

const sessionId = 'sess_123'

const template = 'test'

const response = await clerkClient.sessions.getToken(sessionId, template)

Examples with frameworks

The following examples demonstrate how to use getToken() with different frameworks. Each example performs the following steps:

  1. Gets the current session ID using framework-specific auth helpers.
  2. Checks if there's an active session.
  3. Uses the Backend SDK's getToken() method to generate a token from a template.
  4. Returns the token in the response.

The token resembles the following:

{
  jwt: 'eyJhbG...'
}

Note

For these examples to work, you must have a JWT template named "test" in the Clerk Dashboard before running the code.

app/api/get-token-example/route.ts
import { auth, clerkClient } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'

export async function GET() {
  const { sessionId } = await auth()

  if (!sessionId) {
    return Response.json({ message: 'Unauthorized' }, { status: 401 })
  }

  const template = 'test'
  const client = await clerkClient()
  const token = await client.sessions.getToken(sessionId, template)

  return Response.json({ token })
}
pages/api/getToken.ts
import { clerkClient, getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'

export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
  const { sessionId } = getAuth(req)

  if (!sessionId) {
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorized' })
  }

  const template = 'test'
  const client = await clerkClient()
  const token = await client.sessions.getToken(sessionId, template)

  return res.json({ token })
}
getToken.ts
import { clerkClient } from '@clerk/express'

app.get('/api/get-token', async (req, res) => {
  const sessionId = req.auth.sessionId

  if (!sessionId) {
    res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorized' })
    return
  }

  const template = 'test'
  const token = await clerkClient.sessions.getToken(sessionId, template)

  res.json({ token })
})
app/routes/get-token.ts
import { createClerkClient } from '@clerk/remix/api.server'
import { getAuth } from '@clerk/remix/ssr.server'
import { ActionFunction, json } from '@remix-run/node'

export const action: ActionFunction = async (req) => {
  const { sessionId } = await getAuth(req)

  const template = 'test'

  const token = await createClerkClient({
    secretKey: process.env.CLERK_SECRET_KEY,
  }).sessions.getToken(sessionId, template)

  return json({ token })
}

Backend API (BAPI) endpoint

This method in the SDK is a wrapper around the BAPI endpoint POST/sessions/{session_id}/tokens/{template_name}. See the BAPI reference for more information.

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