February 21, 2025
The Clerk team has been hard at work shipping new features to help you build secure applications faster. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:
Clerk as an OpenID Connect provider
Clerk can now be used as an OpenID Connect (ODIC) identity provider for external services. This feature allows you to leverage your existing user base in service providers that support OIDC integrations - like Shopify or Zendesk.
- Centralized OAuth application management right inside the Clerk Dashboard.
- Support for multiple redirect URIs to seamlessly handle different environments.
- A token introspection endpoint to validate access and refresh tokens securely.
To get started using Clerk as an OIDC IdP, you can learn more in the docs.
Passkeys support for Expo
Passkeys enable a secure, passwordless method of authentication that integrates directly into the user’s device using the power of public-key cryptography. While Clerk web applications have supported Passkeys as a strategy for some time now, you can now use Passkeys with our Expo SDK to provide a seamless authentication experience for applications built with React Native.
- Securely utilize the user device as the method of authentication, avoiding the need for your users to remember their credentials.
- Support for additional authentication strategies on top of Passkeys to allow your users to authenticate with their favorite method.
You can learn more about how to use Passkeys with your Expo application in the docs.
Introducing nefi by Blazity
Our friends at Blazity have launched a new way to create and manage Next.js projects. nefi is AI agent that runs directly in your terminal to accept LLM prompts, automating code management and feature integration through natural language commands. The goal of nefi is to simplify the amount of manual work and time spent on common tasks involved in setting up Next.js applications.
Clerk has partnered with Blazity to make adding authentication to Next.js projects easy. Simply ask nefi to “add auth to my project” and it will automate the process of integrating Clerk into the project for you.
Other features of nefi include:
- Streamlined Next.js project configuration using natural language commands.
- A tailor-made prompt interpreter that allows developers to write shorter, more focused prompts.
- Automatic handling of git operations, including commit and branch naming conventions.
- Isolated branch operations prevent unintended code modification by the agent.
Try out nefi by heading over to the quick start page on the docs or on the GitHub repository.
Resources
- Build a Next.js sign-up form with React Hook Form by Alex Booker
- Implement Role-Based Access Control in Next.js 15 by Ankur Tyagi
- Validate your SaaS idea while building an audience by Brian Morrison II
- Using Clerk Authentication Webhooks with Next.js by Mihir Bhadak
- Building a Slack Clone with Next.js and TailwindCSS (1 of a 3-part series) by Oluwabusayo Jacobs
- Why we use Clerk for auth by Flo Merian
If you have feedback or suggestions, we want to hear them! Let us know at feedback.clerk.com. For the latest on our product releases, follow @ClerkDev on 𝕏 or join the Clerk Community on Discord.