Basic Usage

Better Auth provides built-in authentication support for:

Email and password
Social provider (Google, GitHub, Apple, and more)

But also can easily be extended using plugins, such as: username, magic link, passkey, email-otp, and more.

Email & Password

To enable email and password authentication:

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    emailAndPassword: {    
        enabled: true
    } 
})

To sign up a user you need to call the client method signUp.email with the user's information.

sign-up.ts

import { authClient } from "@/lib/auth-client"; //import the auth client
 
const { data, error } = await authClient.signUp.email({
        email, // user email address
        password, // user password -> min 8 characters by default
        name, // user display name
        image, // user image url (optional)
        callbackURL: "/dashboard" // a url to redirect to after the user verifies their email (optional)
    }, {
        onRequest: (ctx) => {
            //show loading
        },
        onSuccess: (ctx) => {
            //redirect to the dashboard or sign in page
        },
        onError: (ctx) => {
            // display the error message
            alert(ctx.error.message);
        },
});

By default, the users are automatically signed in after they successfully sign up. To disable this behavior you can set autoSignIn to false.

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    emailAndPassword: {
    	enabled: true,
    	autoSignIn: false //defaults to true
  },
})

To sign a user in, you can use the signIn.email function provided by the client.

sign-in

const { data, error } = await authClient.signIn.email({
        /**
         * The user email
         */
        email,
        /**
         * The user password
         */
        password,
        /**
         * a url to redirect to after the user verifies their email (optional)
         */
        callbackURL: "/dashboard",
        /**
         * remember the user session after the browser is closed. 
         * @default true
         */
        rememberMe: false
}, {
    //callbacks
})

Always invoke client methods from the client side. Don't call them from the server.

Server-Side Authentication

To authenticate a user on the server, you can use the auth.api methods.

server.ts

import { auth } from "./auth"; // path to your Better Auth server instance
 
const response = await auth.api.signInEmail({
    body: {
        email,
        password
    },
    asResponse: true // returns a response object instead of data
});

If the server cannot return a response object, you'll need to manually parse and set cookies. But for frameworks like Next.js we provide a plugin to handle this automatically

Better Auth supports multiple social providers, including Google, GitHub, Apple, Discord, and more. To use a social provider, you need to configure the ones you need in the socialProviders option on your auth object.

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    socialProviders: { 
        github: { 
            clientId: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_ID!, 
            clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET!, 
        } 
    }, 
})

To sign in using a social provider you need to call signIn.social. It takes an object with the following properties:

sign-in.ts

import { authClient } from "@/lib/auth-client"; //import the auth client
 
await authClient.signIn.social({
    /**
     * The social provider id
     * @example "github", "google", "apple"
     */
    provider: "github",
    /**
     * a url to redirect after the user authenticates with the provider
     * @default "/"
     */
    callbackURL: "/dashboard", 
    /**
     * a url to redirect if an error occurs during the sign in process
     */
    errorCallbackURL: "/error",
    /**
     * a url to redirect if the user is newly registered
     */
    newUserCallbackURL: "/welcome",
    /**
     * disable the automatic redirect to the provider. 
     * @default false
     */
    disableRedirect: true,
});

You can also authenticate using idToken or accessToken from the social provider instead of redirecting the user to the provider's site. See social providers documentation for more details.

Signout

To signout a user, you can use the signOut function provided by the client.

user-card.tsx

await authClient.signOut();

you can pass fetchOptions to redirect onSuccess

user-card.tsx

await authClient.signOut({
  fetchOptions: {
    onSuccess: () => {
      router.push("/login"); // redirect to login page
    },
  },
});

Session

Once a user is signed in, you'll want to access the user session. Better Auth allows you easily to access the session data from the server and client side.

Client Side

Use Session

Better Auth provides a useSession hook to easily access session data on the client side. This hook is implemented using nanostore and has support for each supported framework and vanilla client, ensuring that any changes to the session (such as signing out) are immediately reflected in your UI.

user.tsx

import { authClient } from "@/lib/auth-client" // import the auth client
 
export function User(){
 
    const { 
        data: session, 
        isPending, //loading state
        error, //error object
        refetch //refetch the session
    } = authClient.useSession() 
 
    return (
        //...
    )
}

Get Session

If you prefer not to use the hook, you can use the getSession method provided by the client.

user.tsx

import { authClient } from "@/lib/auth-client" // import the auth client
 
const { data: session, error } = await authClient.getSession()

You can also use it with client-side data-fetching libraries like TanStack Query.

Server Side

The server provides a session object that you can use to access the session data. It requires request headers object to be passed to the getSession method.

Example: Using some popular frameworks

server.ts

import { auth } from "./auth"; // path to your Better Auth server instance
import { headers } from "next/headers";
 
const session = await auth.api.getSession({
    headers: await headers() // you need to pass the headers object.
})

For more details check session-management documentation.

Using Plugins

One of the unique features of Better Auth is a plugins ecosystem. It allows you to add complex auth related functionality with small lines of code.

Below is an example of how to add two factor authentication using two factor plugin.

Server Configuration

To add a plugin, you need to import the plugin and pass it to the plugins option of the auth instance. For example, to add two factor authentication, you can use the following code:

auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth"
import { twoFactor } from "better-auth/plugins"
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    //...rest of the options
    plugins: [ 
        twoFactor() 
    ] 
})

now two factor related routes and method will be available on the server.

Migrate Database

After adding the plugin, you'll need to add the required tables to your database. You can do this by running the migrate command, or by using the generate command to create the schema and handle the migration manually.

generating the schema:

terminal

npx @better-auth/cli generate

using the migrate command:

terminal

npx @better-auth/cli migrate

If you prefer adding the schema manually, you can check the schema required on the two factor plugin documentation.

Client Configuration

Once we're done with the server, we need to add the plugin to the client. To do this, you need to import the plugin and pass it to the plugins option of the auth client. For example, to add two factor authentication, you can use the following code:

auth-client.ts

import { createAuthClient } from "better-auth/client";
import { twoFactorClient } from "better-auth/client/plugins"; 
 
const authClient = createAuthClient({
    plugins: [ 
        twoFactorClient({ 
            twoFactorPage: "/two-factor" // the page to redirect if a user need to verify 2nd factor
        }) 
    ] 
})

now two factor related methods will be available on the client.

profile.ts

import { authClient } from "./auth-client"
 
const enableTwoFactor = async() => {
    const data = await authClient.twoFactor.enable({
        password // the user password is required
    }) // this will enable two factor
}
 
const disableTwoFactor = async() => {
    const data = await authClient.twoFactor.disable({
        password // the user password is required
    }) // this will disable two factor
}
 
const signInWith2Factor = async() => {
    const data = await authClient.signIn.email({
        //...
    })
    //if the user has two factor enabled, it will redirect to the two factor page
}
 
const verifyTOTP = async() => {
    const data = await authClient.twoFactor.verifyTOTP({
        code: "123456", // the code entered by the user 
        /**
         * If the device is trusted, the user won't
         * need to pass 2FA again on the same device
         */
        trustDevice: true
    })
}

Next step: See the the two factor plugin documentation.

Installation

Learn how to configure Better Auth in your project.

API

Better Auth API.

Installation

API

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