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<TutorialHero exampleRepo={[ { title: "Express Quickstart Repo", link: "https://github.com/clerk/clerk-express-quickstart" } ]} beforeYouStart={[ { title: "Set up a Clerk application", link: "/docs/getting-started/quickstart/setup-clerk", icon: "clerk", }, { title: "Create a Express application", link: "https://expressjs.com/en/starter/installing.html", icon: "expressjs", } ]} />
Learn how to integrate Clerk into your Express backend for secure user authentication and management. This guide focuses on backend implementation and requires a Clerk frontend SDK to function correctly.
<Steps> ## Install `@clerk/express`The Clerk Express SDK provides a range of backend utilities to simplify user authentication and management in your application.
Run the following command to install the SDK:
<CodeBlockTabs options={["npm", "yarn", "pnpm", "bun"]}>
bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }} npm install @clerk/express
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
yarn add @clerk/express
```
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
pnpm add @clerk/express
```
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
bun add @clerk/express
```
The final result should resemble the following:
CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY={{pub_key}}
CLERK_SECRET_KEY={{secret}}
This guide uses dotenv to load the environment variables. Run the following command to install it:
<CodeBlockTabs options={["npm", "yarn", "pnpm", "bun"]}>
bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }} npm install dotenv
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
yarn add dotenv
```
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
pnpm add dotenv
```
```bash {{ filename: 'terminal' }}
bun add dotenv
```
clerkMiddleware() to your appThe clerkMiddleware() function checks the request's cookies and headers for a session JWT and, if found, attaches the Auth{{ target: '_blank' }} object to the request object under the auth key.
import 'dotenv/config'
import express from 'express'
import { clerkMiddleware } from '@clerk/express'
const app = express()
const PORT = 3000
app.use(clerkMiddleware())
// Start the server and listen on the specified port
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${PORT}`)
})
requireAuth()To protect your routes, use the requireAuth() middleware. This middleware functions similarly to clerkMiddleware(), but also protects your routes by redirecting unauthenticated users to the sign-in page.
In the following example, requireAuth() is used to protect the /protected route. If the user isn't authenticated, they're redirected to the homepage. If the user is authenticated, the getAuth() function is used to get the userId, which is passed to clerkClient.users.getUser(){{ target: '_blank' }} to fetch the current user's User object.
import 'dotenv/config'
import express from 'express'
import { clerkClient, requireAuth, getAuth } from '@clerk/express'
const app = express()
const PORT = 3000
// Use requireAuth() to protect this route
// If user isn't authenticated, requireAuth() will redirect back to the homepage
app.get('/protected', requireAuth(), async (req, res) => {
// Use `getAuth()` to get the user's `userId`
const { userId } = getAuth(req)
// Use Clerk's JS Backend SDK to get the user's User object
const user = await clerkClient.users.getUser(userId)
return res.json({ user })
})
// Start the server and listen on the specified port
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${PORT}`)
})
If you're using TypeScript, add a global type reference to your project to enable auto-completion and type checking for the auth object in Express request handlers.
types/ directory.globals.d.ts file with the following code./// <reference types="@clerk/express/env" />
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