vercel/auth
Authentication integration guidance — Clerk (native Vercel Marketplace), Descope, and Auth0 setup for Next.js applications. Covers middleware auth patterns, sign-in/sign-up flows, and Marketplace provisioning. Use when implementing user authentication.
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel/vercel-plugin --skill authYou are an expert in authentication for Vercel-deployed applications — covering Clerk (native Vercel Marketplace integration), Descope, and Auth0.
Clerk is a native Vercel Marketplace integration with auto-provisioned environment variables and unified billing. Current SDK: @clerk/nextjs v7 (Core 3, March 2026).
# Install Clerk from Vercel Marketplace (auto-provisions env vars)
vercel integration add clerk
Auto-provisioned environment variables:
CLERK_SECRET_KEY — server-side API keyNEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY — client-side publishable key# Install the Clerk Next.js SDK
npm install @clerk/nextjs
// middleware.ts
import { clerkMiddleware } from "@clerk/nextjs/server";
export default clerkMiddleware();
export const config = {
matcher: [
// Skip Next.js internals and static files
"/((?!_next|[^?]*\\.(?:html?|css|js(?!on)|jpe?g|webp|png|gif|svg|ttf|woff2?|ico|csv|docx?|xlsx?|zip|webmanifest)).*)",
// Always run for API routes
"/(api|trpc)(.*)",
],
};
// middleware.ts — protect specific routes
import { clerkMiddleware, createRouteMatcher } from "@clerk/nextjs/server";
const isProtectedRoute = createRouteMatcher(["/dashboard(.*)", "/api(.*)"]);
export default clerkMiddleware(async (auth, req) => {
if (isProtectedRoute(req)) {
await auth.protect();
}
});
Proxy Clerk's Frontend API through your own domain to avoid third-party requests:
// middleware.ts
export default clerkMiddleware({
frontendApiProxy: { enabled: true },
});
// app/layout.tsx
import { ClerkProvider } from "@clerk/nextjs";
export default function RootLayout({
children,
}: {
children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
return (
<ClerkProvider>
<html lang="en">
<body>{children}</body>
</html>
</ClerkProvider>
);
}
// app/sign-in/[[...sign-in]]/page.tsx
import { SignIn } from "@clerk/nextjs";
export default function Page() {
return <SignIn />;
}
// app/sign-up/[[...sign-up]]/page.tsx
import { SignUp } from "@clerk/nextjs";
export default function Page() {
return <SignUp />;
}
Add routing env vars to .env.local:
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL=/sign-in
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_URL=/sign-up
// Server component
import { currentUser } from "@clerk/nextjs/server";
export default async function Page() {
const user = await currentUser();
return <p>Hello, {user?.firstName}</p>;
}
// Client component
"use client";
import { useUser } from "@clerk/nextjs";
export default function UserGreeting() {
const { user, isLoaded } = useUser();
if (!isLoaded) return null;
return <p>Hello, {user?.firstName}</p>;
}
// app/api/protected/route.ts
import { auth } from "@clerk/nextjs/server";
export async function GET() {
const { userId } = await auth();
if (!userId) {
return Response.json({ error: "Unauthorized" }, { status: 401 });
}
return Response.json({ userId });
}
Descope is available on the Vercel Marketplace with native integration support.
vercel integration add descope
npm install @descope/nextjs-sdk
// app/layout.tsx
import { AuthProvider } from "@descope/nextjs-sdk";
export default function RootLayout({
children,
}: {
children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
return (
<AuthProvider projectId={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_DESCOPE_PROJECT_ID!}>
<html lang="en">
<body>{children}</body>
</html>
</AuthProvider>
);
}
// middleware.ts
import { authMiddleware } from "@descope/nextjs-sdk/server";
export default authMiddleware({
projectId: process.env.DESCOPE_PROJECT_ID!,
publicRoutes: ["/", "/sign-in"],
});
"use client";
import { Descope } from "@descope/nextjs-sdk";
export default function SignInPage() {
return <Descope flowId="sign-up-or-in" />;
}
Auth0 provides a mature authentication platform with extensive identity provider support.
npm install @auth0/nextjs-auth0
// lib/auth0.ts
import { Auth0Client } from "@auth0/nextjs-auth0/server";
export const auth0 = new Auth0Client();
Required environment variables:
AUTH0_SECRET=<random-secret>
AUTH0_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
AUTH0_ISSUER_BASE_URL=https://your-tenant.auth0.com
AUTH0_CLIENT_ID=<client-id>
AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET=<client-secret>
// middleware.ts
import { auth0 } from "@/lib/auth0";
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
return await auth0.middleware(request);
}
export const config = {
matcher: [
"/((?!_next/static|_next/image|favicon.ico|sitemap.xml|robots.txt).*)",
],
};
// Server component
import { auth0 } from "@/lib/auth0";
export default async function Page() {
const session = await auth0.getSession();
return session ? (
<p>Hello, {session.user.name}</p>
) : (
<a href="/auth/login">Log in</a>
);
}
| Need | Recommended | Why |
|------|------------|-----|
| Fastest setup on Vercel | Clerk | Native Marketplace, auto-provisioned env vars |
| Passwordless / social login flows | Descope | Visual flow builder, Marketplace native |
| Enterprise SSO / SAML / multi-tenant | Auth0 | Deep enterprise identity support |
| Pre-built UI components | Clerk | Drop-in <SignIn />, <UserButton /> |
| Vercel unified billing | Clerk or Descope | Both are native Marketplace integrations |
Clerk provides an upgrade CLI that scans your codebase and applies codemods: npx @clerk/upgrade. Requires Node.js 20.9.0+.
auth() is async — always use const { userId } = await auth(), not synchronousauth.protect() moved — use await auth.protect() directly, not from the return value of auth()clerkClient() is async — use await clerkClient() in middleware handlersauthMiddleware() removed — migrate to clerkMiddleware()@clerk/types deprecated — import types from SDK subpath exports: import type { UserResource } from '@clerk/react/types' (works from any SDK package)ClerkProvider no longer forces dynamic rendering — pass the dynamic prop if needed<ClerkProvider> inside <body>, not wrapping <html>satelliteAutoSync option skips handshake redirects when no session cookies existgetToken() now correctly distinguishes signed-out from offline states⤳ skill: marketplace⤳ skill: routing-middleware⤳ skill: env-varsTake vercel/auth from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.
The instructions reference npm, npx.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.