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Auth Patterns

  • 163 installs
  • 3.2k repo stars
  • Updated August 2, 2026
  • davepoon/buildwithclaude

Choose and implement authentication patterns—sessions, JWT, OAuth, magic links, and RBAC—for web and API products with secure defaults.

About

Covers authentication architecture for apps built with Claude: compare session cookies, bearer tokens, OAuth providers, passwordless flows, middleware guards, refresh strategies, and least-privilege RBAC suitable for SaaS APIs and mobile backends.

  • Session and JWT patterns
  • OAuth and SSO integration
  • Role-based access control
  • Secure cookie and token storage
  • API route protection

Auth Patterns by the numbers

  • 163 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #848 of 2,203 Security skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 3, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
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Listed on Skillselion
Installs163
repo stars3.2k
Last updatedAugust 2, 2026
Repositorydavepoon/buildwithclaude

What it does

Choose and implement authentication patterns—sessions, JWT, OAuth, magic links, and RBAC—for web and API products with secure defaults.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Authentication Patterns in Next.js

Overview

Next.js supports multiple authentication strategies. This skill covers common patterns including NextAuth.js (Auth.js), middleware-based protection, and session management.

Authentication Libraries

LibraryBest For
NextAuth.js (Auth.js)Full-featured auth with providers
ClerkManaged auth service
LuciaLightweight, flexible auth
Supabase AuthSupabase ecosystem
Custom JWTFull control

NextAuth.js v5 Setup

Installation

npm install next-auth@beta

Configuration

// auth.ts
import NextAuth from 'next-auth'
import GitHub from 'next-auth/providers/github'
import Credentials from 'next-auth/providers/credentials'

export const { handlers, auth, signIn, signOut } = NextAuth({
  providers: [
    GitHub({
      clientId: process.env.GITHUB_ID,
      clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_SECRET,
    }),
    Credentials({
      credentials: {
        email: { label: 'Email', type: 'email' },
        password: { label: 'Password', type: 'password' },
      },
      authorize: async (credentials) => {
        const user = await getUserByEmail(credentials.email)
        if (!user || !verifyPassword(credentials.password, user.password)) {
          return null
        }
        return user
      },
    }),
  ],
  callbacks: {
    authorized: async ({ auth }) => {
      return !!auth
    },
  },
})

API Route Handler

// app/api/auth/[...nextauth]/route.ts
import { handlers } from '@/auth'

export const { GET, POST } = handlers

Middleware Protection

// middleware.ts
export { auth as middleware } from '@/auth'

export const config = {
  matcher: ['/dashboard/:path*', '/api/protected/:path*'],
}

Getting Session Data

In Server Components

// app/dashboard/page.tsx
import { auth } from '@/auth'
import { redirect } from 'next/navigation'

export default async function DashboardPage() {
  const session = await auth()

  if (!session) {
    redirect('/login')
  }

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome, {session.user?.name}</h1>
    </div>
  )
}

In Client Components

// components/user-menu.tsx
'use client'

import { useSession } from 'next-auth/react'

export function UserMenu() {
  const { data: session, status } = useSession()

  if (status === 'loading') {
    return <div>Loading...</div>
  }

  if (!session) {
    return <SignInButton />
  }

  return (
    <div>
      <span>{session.user?.name}</span>
      <SignOutButton />
    </div>
  )
}

Session Provider Setup

// app/providers.tsx
'use client'

import { SessionProvider } from 'next-auth/react'

export function Providers({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return <SessionProvider>{children}</SessionProvider>
}

// app/layout.tsx
import { Providers } from './providers'

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        <Providers>{children}</Providers>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

Sign In/Out Components

// components/auth-buttons.tsx
import { signIn, signOut } from '@/auth'

export function SignInButton() {
  return (
    <form
      action={async () => {
        'use server'
        await signIn('github')
      }}
    >
      <button type="submit">Sign in with GitHub</button>
    </form>
  )
}

export function SignOutButton() {
  return (
    <form
      action={async () => {
        'use server'
        await signOut()
      }}
    >
      <button type="submit">Sign out</button>
    </form>
  )
}

Middleware-Based Auth

Basic Pattern

// middleware.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server'
import type { NextRequest } from 'next/server'

const protectedRoutes = ['/dashboard', '/settings', '/api/protected']
const authRoutes = ['/login', '/signup']

export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const token = request.cookies.get('session')?.value
  const { pathname } = request.nextUrl

  // Redirect authenticated users away from auth pages
  if (authRoutes.some(route => pathname.startsWith(route))) {
    if (token) {
      return NextResponse.redirect(new URL('/dashboard', request.url))
    }
    return NextResponse.next()
  }

  // Protect routes
  if (protectedRoutes.some(route => pathname.startsWith(route))) {
    if (!token) {
      const loginUrl = new URL('/login', request.url)
      loginUrl.searchParams.set('callbackUrl', pathname)
      return NextResponse.redirect(loginUrl)
    }
  }

  return NextResponse.next()
}

export const config = {
  matcher: ['/((?!_next/static|_next/image|favicon.ico).*)'],
}

With JWT Verification

// middleware.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server'
import { jwtVerify } from 'jose'

const secret = new TextEncoder().encode(process.env.JWT_SECRET)

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const token = request.cookies.get('token')?.value

  if (!token) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL('/login', request.url))
  }

  try {
    const { payload } = await jwtVerify(token, secret)
    // Token is valid, continue
    return NextResponse.next()
  } catch {
    // Token is invalid
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL('/login', request.url))
  }
}

Role-Based Access Control

Extending Session Types

// types/next-auth.d.ts
import { DefaultSession } from 'next-auth'

declare module 'next-auth' {
  interface Session {
    user: {
      role: 'user' | 'admin'
    } & DefaultSession['user']
  }
}

// auth.ts
export const { handlers, auth } = NextAuth({
  callbacks: {
    session: ({ session, token }) => ({
      ...session,
      user: {
        ...session.user,
        role: token.role,
      },
    }),
    jwt: ({ token, user }) => {
      if (user) {
        token.role = user.role
      }
      return token
    },
  },
})

Role-Based Component

// components/admin-only.tsx
import { auth } from '@/auth'
import { redirect } from 'next/navigation'

export async function AdminOnly({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  const session = await auth()

  if (session?.user?.role !== 'admin') {
    redirect('/unauthorized')
  }

  return <>{children}</>
}

// Usage
export default async function AdminPage() {
  return (
    <AdminOnly>
      <AdminDashboard />
    </AdminOnly>
  )
}

Session Storage Options

JWT (Stateless)

// auth.ts
export const { auth } = NextAuth({
  session: { strategy: 'jwt' },
  // JWT stored in cookies, no database needed
})

Database Sessions

// auth.ts
import { PrismaAdapter } from '@auth/prisma-adapter'
import { prisma } from '@/lib/prisma'

export const { auth } = NextAuth({
  adapter: PrismaAdapter(prisma),
  session: { strategy: 'database' },
  // Sessions stored in database
})

Custom Login Page

// app/login/page.tsx
'use client'

import { signIn } from 'next-auth/react'
import { useSearchParams } from 'next/navigation'

export default function LoginPage() {
  const searchParams = useSearchParams()
  const callbackUrl = searchParams.get('callbackUrl') || '/dashboard'

  return (
    <div className="flex flex-col gap-4">
      <button
        onClick={() => signIn('github', { callbackUrl })}
        className="btn"
      >
        Sign in with GitHub
      </button>
      <button
        onClick={() => signIn('google', { callbackUrl })}
        className="btn"
      >
        Sign in with Google
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

Security Best Practices

1. Use HTTPS in production 2. Set secure cookie flags (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite) 3. Implement CSRF protection (built into NextAuth) 4. Validate redirect URLs to prevent open redirects 5. Use environment variables for secrets 6. Implement rate limiting on auth endpoints 7. Hash passwords with bcrypt or argon2

Resources

For detailed patterns, see:

  • references/middleware-auth.md - Advanced middleware patterns
  • references/session-management.md - Session strategies
  • examples/nextauth-setup.md - Complete NextAuth.js setup

Related skills

Securityappsecsecretscompliance

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