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getAuth()

The getAuth() helper retrieves authentication state from the request object.

Note

If you are using App Router, use the auth() helper instead.

  • Name
    req
    Description

    The Next.js request object.

  • Name
    opts?
    Description

    An optional object that can be used to configure the behavior of the getAuth() function. It accepts the following properties:

    • secretKey?: A string that represents the Secret Key used to sign the session token. If not provided, the Secret Key is retrieved from the environment variable CLERK_SECRET_KEY.

Returns

getAuth() returns the Auth object.

Usage

Basic usage

The following example demonstrates how to use getAuth() to retrieve authentication information in an API route.

app/api/example/route.ts
import { getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'

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

  // Add logic that retrieves the data for the API route

  return res.status(200).json({ userId: userId })
}

Protect API routes

It is important to protect your API routes to ensure that only authenticated users can access them. You can do this by checking if the userId is present in the getAuth() response, like in the following example:

app/api/example/route.ts
import { getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'

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

  if (!userId) {
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Not authenticated' })
  }

  // Add logic that retrieves the data for the API route

  return res.status(200).json({ userId: userId })
}

Usage with getToken()

getAuth() returns getToken(), which is a method that returns the current user's session token. You can also use this function to retrieve a custom JWT template, like in the following example:

app/api/example/route.ts
import { getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'

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

  const token = await getToken({ template: 'supabase' })

  // Add logic that retrieves the data
  // from your database using the token

  return res.status(200).json({})
}

Usage with clerkClient

clerkClient is used to access the Backend SDK, which exposes Clerk's Backend API resources. You can use getAuth() to pass authentication information that many of the Backend SDK methods require, like in the following example:

app/api/example/route.ts
import { clerkClient, getAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'

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

  const client = await clerkClient()

  const user = userId ? await client.users.getUser(userId) : null

  return res.status(200).json({})
}

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