Clerk Core Workflow B: Session & Middleware

Overview

Implement session management and route protection with Clerk middleware. Covers clerkMiddleware() configuration, auth() patterns, custom session claims, JWT templates for external services, organization-scoped sessions, and session token v2.

Prerequisites

• @clerk/nextjs installed with ClerkProvider wrapping the app
• Next.js 14+ with App Router
• Sign-in/sign-up flows working (clerk-core-workflow-a completed)

Instructions

Step 1: Configure clerkMiddleware with Route Matchers

// middleware.ts (project root)
import { clerkMiddleware, createRouteMatcher } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'

const isPublicRoute = createRouteMatcher([
  '/',
  '/sign-in(.*)',
  '/sign-up(.*)',
  '/api/webhooks(.*)',
  '/pricing',
  '/blog(.*)',
])

const isAdminRoute = createRouteMatcher(['/admin(.*)'])
const isApiRoute = createRouteMatcher(['/api(.*)'])

export default clerkMiddleware(async (auth, req) => {
  // Public routes: no auth required
  if (isPublicRoute(req)) return

  // Admin routes: require org:admin role
  if (isAdminRoute(req)) {
    await auth.protect({ role: 'org:admin' })
    return
  }

  // All other routes: require authentication
  await auth.protect()
})

export const config = {
  matcher: [
    '/((?!_next|[^?]*\\.(?:html?|css|js(?!on)|jpe?g|webp|png|gif|svg|ttf|woff2?|ico|csv|docx?|xlsx?|zip|webmanifest)).*)',
    '/(api|trpc)(.*)',
  ],
}

Key behavior: clerkMiddleware() does NOT protect any routes by default. You must explicitly call auth.protect() for routes that require authentication. This is a design decision to avoid over-blocking.

Step 2: Protect API Routes with auth()

// app/api/data/route.ts
import { auth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'

export async function GET() {
  const { userId, orgId, has } = await auth()

  if (!userId) {
    return Response.json({ error: 'Unauthorized' }, { status: 401 })
  }

  // Permission-based authorization
  if (!has({ permission: 'org:data:read' })) {
    return Response.json({ error: 'Forbidden' }, { status: 403 })
  }

  const data = orgId
    ? await db.items.findMany({ where: { organizationId: orgId } })
    : await db.items.findMany({ where: { ownerId: userId } })

  return Response.json({ data, userId, orgId })
}

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { userId, orgId, has } = await auth()
  if (!userId) return Response.json({ error: 'Unauthorized' }, { status: 401 })
  if (!has({ permission: 'org:data:write' })) {
    return Response.json({ error: 'Forbidden' }, { status: 403 })
  }

  const body = await req.json()
  const item = await db.items.create({
    data: { ...body, ownerId: userId, organizationId: orgId },
  })
  return Response.json({ item }, { status: 201 })
}

Step 3: Server Component Auth Patterns

// app/dashboard/page.tsx
import { auth, currentUser } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import { redirect } from 'next/navigation'

export default async function DashboardPage() {
  const { userId, orgId, orgRole, has, sessionClaims } = await auth()
  if (!userId) redirect('/sign-in')

  // auth() is free (JWT parsing) — use for lightweight checks
  const isAdmin = has({ role: 'org:admin' })

  // currentUser() costs a Backend API call — use only when you need full profile
  const user = await currentUser()

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome, {user?.firstName}</h1>
      <p>Organization: {orgId || 'Personal account'}</p>
      <p>Role: {orgRole || 'N/A'}</p>
      {isAdmin && <a href="/admin">Admin Panel</a>}
    </div>
  )
}

Step 4: Custom Session Claims

Customize in Dashboard > Sessions > Customize session token:

{
  "metadata": "{{user.public_metadata}}",
  "email": "{{user.primary_email_address}}"
}

Then declare types and access in code:

// types/clerk.d.ts
declare global {
  interface CustomJwtSessionClaims {
    metadata?: {
      role?: string
      plan?: string
    }
    email?: string
  }
}
export {}

// Access custom claims (no API call needed — embedded in JWT)
import { auth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'

export async function GET() {
  const { sessionClaims } = await auth()

  const userPlan = sessionClaims?.metadata?.plan || 'free'
  const userEmail = sessionClaims?.email

  return Response.json({ plan: userPlan, email: userEmail })
}

Warning: Session token cookie limit is 4KB. Custom claims should be under 1.2KB. Store large data in your database, not in session claims.

Step 5: JWT Templates for External Services

// app/api/supabase-data/route.ts
import { auth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js'

export async function GET() {
  const { userId, getToken } = await auth()
  if (!userId) return Response.json({ error: 'Unauthorized' }, { status: 401 })

  // Get a JWT with Supabase-compatible claims
  // Configure the template in Dashboard > JWT Templates
  const supabaseToken = await getToken({ template: 'supabase' })

  const supabase = createClient(
    process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL!,
    process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY!,
    { global: { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${supabaseToken}` } } }
  )

  const { data } = await supabase.from('items').select('*')
  return Response.json({ data })
}

Configure JWT template in Dashboard > JWT Templates > New template:

{
  "sub": "{{user.id}}",
  "email": "{{user.primary_email_address}}",
  "role": "authenticated",
  "aud": "authenticated"
}

Step 6: Organization-Scoped Sessions

'use client'
import { useOrganizationList, useOrganization, useAuth } from '@clerk/nextjs'

export function OrgSwitcher() {
  const { organizationList, setActive, isLoaded } = useOrganizationList({
    userMemberships: { infinite: true },
  })
  const { organization } = useOrganization()

  if (!isLoaded) return <div>Loading orgs...</div>

  return (
    <div>
      <p>Active: {organization?.name || 'Personal account'}</p>
      <ul>
        {organizationList?.map(({ organization: org, membership }) => (
          <li key={org.id}>
            <button onClick={() => setActive({ organization: org.id })}>
              {org.name} ({membership.role})
            </button>
          </li>
        ))}
        <li>
          <button onClick={() => setActive({ organization: null })}>
            Personal account
          </button>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  )
}

Step 7: Server Action Permission Guards

'use server'
import { auth } from '@clerk/nextjs/server'

export async function deleteItem(itemId: string) {
  const { userId, orgId, has } = await auth()
  if (!userId) throw new Error('Unauthorized')
  if (!has({ permission: 'org:data:delete' })) {
    throw new Error('You do not have permission to delete items')
  }

  await db.items.delete({ where: { id: itemId, organizationId: orgId } })
  return { success: true }
}

export async function updateOrgSettings(settings: Record<string, any>) {
  const { orgId, has } = await auth()
  if (!orgId) throw new Error('No organization selected')
  if (!has({ role: 'org:admin' })) {
    throw new Error('Only admins can update organization settings')
  }

  await db.orgSettings.upsert({
    where: { orgId },
    update: settings,
    create: { orgId, ...settings },
  })
  return { success: true }
}

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Middleware redirect loop	Sign-in page not in isPublicRoute	Add /sign-in(.*) to public route matcher
401 on API route	Token not forwarded	Include credentials in fetch or use server-side auth()
orgId is null	No active organization	Prompt user with <OrganizationSwitcher />
has() always false	Permission not assigned to role	Check Dashboard > Organizations > Roles
Session expired	Token TTL exceeded	Clerk auto-refreshes; if stuck, clear cookies
auth() was called but clerkMiddleware() not detected	Middleware missing or wrong location	Ensure middleware.ts at project root

Enterprise Considerations

• Session token v2 (default since April 2025) is more compact -- if your downstream services parse JWTs, verify they handle the new format
• auth.protect() in middleware returns a 401/redirect before reaching your route handler -- this is more efficient than checking userId in every route
• For permission-based access, prefer has({ permission: '...' }) over has({ role: '...' }) -- permissions decouple authorization from role names
• JWT templates support custom iss, aud, and exp claims for integrating with Hasura, Supabase, Convex, Neon, and other services
• Organization switching changes the active session scope instantly -- no page reload needed

Resources

• clerkMiddleware() Reference
• auth() Reference
• Custom Session Tokens
• JWT Templates

Next Steps

Proceed to clerk-webhooks-events for webhook and event handling.