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Upgrade from Clerk's Node SDK to the Express SDK

Install the Express SDK

To upgrade from the Clerk Node SDK to the Clerk Express SDK, run the following command to uninstall the Node SDK:

terminal
npm uninstall @clerk/clerk-sdk-node
terminal
yarn remove @clerk/clerk-sdk-node
terminal
pnpm remove @clerk/clerk-sdk-node

Then, run the following command to install the Express SDK:

terminal
npm install @clerk/express
terminal
yarn add @clerk/express
terminal
pnpm add @clerk/express

Migrate from withAuth()

If you previously used withAuth() to wrap your route handlers, you can now retrieve the authentication state within your Express route handlers using the req.auth object.

clerkMiddleware() is required to be set in the middleware chain before this util is used, as shown in the following example.

import { withAuth } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { clerkMiddleware } from '@clerk/express'
import express from 'express'

const app = express()
const port = 3000

app.use(clerkMiddleware())

app.get(
  '/auth-state',
  withAuth((req, res) => res.json(req.auth)),
)
app.get('/auth-state', (req, res) => {
  const authState = req.auth
  return res.json(authState)
})

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`)
})

requireAuth() usage changes

In the Node SDK, requireAuth() wrapped route handlers. With the Express SDK, you must instead pass requireAuth() as a middleware function before your handler instead of wrapping your handler. Additionally, requireAuth() will now redirect un-authenticated users to the sign in page, where previously it would emit an error.

import { requireAuth } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { requireAuth } from '@clerk/express'

app.get('/', requireAuth(handler))
app.get('/', requireAuth(), handler)

If you'd like to retain the previous behavior of requireAuth() (emitting an error rather than redirecting), you can accomplish this as such:

const legacyRequireAuth = (req, res, next) => {
  if (!req.auth.userId) {
    return next(new Error('Unauthenticated'))
  }
  next()
}
app.get('/', legacyRequireAuth, handler)

You also want to make sure to catch and handle the error using an error middleware below.

Migrate from ClerkExpressWithAuth

To replace your existing Node SDK middleware ClerkExpressWithAuth(), which allows requests to proceed even when users are not authenticated, you need to write your own middleware that uses req.auth object to retrieve the auth state and then return an empty object if the user is not authenticated.

import { ClerkExpressWithAuth } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { clerkMiddleware } from '@clerk/express'
import express from 'express'

const app = express()
const port = 3000

// clerkMiddleware is required to be set in the middleware chain before req.auth is used
app.use(clerkMiddleware())

const withAuth = (req, res, next) => {
  const { userId } = req.auth
  // If the user is not authenticated, return an empty object
  req.auth = userId ? auth : {}
  next()
}

// Define a protected route
app.get('/protected-route', ClerkExpressWithAuth(), (req, res) => {
  res.json(req.auth)
})
app.get('/protected', withAuth, (req, res) => {
  res.json(req.auth)
})

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`)
})

Migrate from ClerkExpressRequireAuth

To enforce strict authentication, replace your existing Node SDK strict middleware, ClerkExpressRequireAuth, with the new Express SDK middleware, requireAuth().

requireAuth() is a middleware function that you can use to protect routes in your Express.js application. This function checks if the user is authenticated, and redirects to the configured sign in URl if they are not.

import { ClerkExpressRequireAuth, RequireAuthProp, StrictAuthProp } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { clerkMiddleware, requireAuth } from '@clerk/express'
import express from 'express'

const app = express()
const port = 3000

// Define a protected route
app.get('/protected', ClerkExpressRequireAuth(), (req, res) => {
  res.send('This is a protected route')
})
app.get('/protected', requireAuth(), (req, res) => {
  res.send('This is a protected route')
})

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`)
})

If you'd like to retain the previous behavior of ClerkExpressRequireAuth (emitting an error rather than redirecting), you can accomplish this as such:

const legacyRequireAuth = (req, res, next) => {
  if (!req.auth.userId) {
    return next(new Error('Unauthenticated'))
  }
  next()
}
app.get('/', legacyRequireAuth, handler)

You also want to make sure to catch and handle the error using an error middleware below.

Migrate from createClerkExpressWithAuth and createClerkExpressRequireAuth

If you previously used createClerkExpressWithAuth or createClerkExpressRequireAuth to create custom middleware by passing in custom Clerk keys, a custom clerkClient instance, and/or a custom API URL, you can no longer use these methods with the Express SDK. Instead, use clerkMiddleware to create your custom middleware.

If you were passing custom Clerk keys or a custom API URL, pass those to createClerkClient from the Backend SDK and then pass the custom clerkClient into the middleware.

import { createClerkExpressRequireAuth } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { createClerkClient } from '@clerk/backend'
import { clerkMiddleware } from '@clerk/express'

const customMiddleware = createClerkExpressRequireAuth({
  publishableKey: '',
  apiUrl: '',
  secretKey: '',
})
const clerkClient = createClerkClient({ publishableKey: '', apiUrl: '', secretKey: '' })

app.use(clerkMiddleware({ clerkClient }))

app.get('/path', customMiddleware, (req, res) => res.json(req.auth))
app.get('/path', (req, res) => res.json(req.auth))

Backend SDK

Removed imports

With the Node SDK, you could import any of the Backend SDK methods directly from the Node SDK. With the Express SDK, you need to import the Backend SDK methods from the @clerk/backend package.

import { User, requireAuth } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { requireAuth } from '@clerk/express'
import { User } from '@clerk/backend'

clerkClient import

The clerkClient is used to access the Backend SDK, which exposes Clerk's backend API resources. If you were importing clerkClient from the Node SDK, you can import it from the Express SDK.

import { clerkClient } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { clerkClient } from '@clerk/express'

Instantiating a custom clerkClient

If you were instantiating a custom clerkClient with createClerkClient, you can no longer import this method from the Express SDK. You must import it from the Backend SDK.

import { createClerkClient } from '@clerk/clerk-sdk-node'
import { createClerkClient } from '@clerk/backend'

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