next-firebase-auth

next-firebase-auth

Simple Firebase authentication for all Next.js rendering strategies.

Demo • Alternatives • Getting Started • API • Config • Types • Migrating to v1 • Examples • Troubleshooting • Contributing

What It Does

This package makes it simple to get the authenticated Firebase user and ID token during both client-side and server-side rendering (SSR).

     🌍   Support for all Next.js rendering strategies

     🔒   Signed, secure, HTTP-only cookies by default

     🆔   Server-side access to the user's Firebase ID token

     🍪   Built-in cookie management

     ↩️   Built-in support for redirecting based on the user's auth status

We treat the Firebase JS SDK as the source of truth for auth status. When the user signs in, we call an endpoint to generate a refresh token and store the user info, ID token, and refresh token in cookies. Future requests to SSR pages receive the user info and ID token from cookies, refreshing the ID token as needed. When the user logs out, we unset the cookies.

Demo

See a live demo of the example app.

When (Not) to Use this Package

Depending on your app's needs, other approaches might work better for you.

If your app only uses static pages or doesn't need the Firebase user for SSR, use the Firebase JS SDK directly to load the user on the client side.

• Pros: It's simpler and removes this package as a dependency.
• Cons: You will not have access to the Firebase user when you use getServerSideProps.

If your app needs the Firebase user for SSR (but does not need the ID token server side), you could consider one of these approaches:

1. On the client, set a JavaScript cookie with the Firebase user information once the Firebase JS SDK loads.
   • Pros: You won't need login/logout API endpoints. You can structure the authed user data however you'd like.
   • Cons: The cookie will be unsigned and accessible to other JavaScript, making this approach less secure. You won't always have access to the Firebase ID token server side, so you won't be able to access other Firebase services. (Note that you can set the ID token in the cookie, but it will expire after an hour and be invalid for future server-side-rendered pages.)
2. Use Firebase's session cookies.
   • Pros: It removes this package as a dependency.
   • Cons: You won't have access to the Firebase ID token server side, so you won't be able to access other Firebase services. You'll need to implement the logic for verifying the session and managing the session state.

If your app needs a generalized authentication solution—not specifically Firebase authentication—you could consider using NextAuth.js. NextAuth.js does not use Firebase authentication but supports a wide variety of identity providers, including Google. Read more here about the differences between next-firebase-auth and NextAuth.js to see which works best for your needs.

This package will likely be helpful if you expect to use both static pages and SSR or if you need access to Firebase ID tokens server side.

A quick note on what this package does not do:

• It does not provide authentication UI. Consider firebaseui-web or build your own.
• It does not extend Firebase functionality beyond providing universal access to the authed user. Use the Firebase admin SDK and Firebase JS SDK for any other needs.

Get Started

Install:

yarn add next-firebase-auth@canary or npm i next-firebase-auth@canary

⚠️ If you're using Firebase JS SDK v8 or below, use next-firebase-auth@^0.15.0.

Make sure peer dependencies are also installed:

yarn add firebase firebase-admin next react react-dom

Create a module to initialize next-firebase-auth.

Example config:

See config documentation for details

// ./initAuth.js
import { init } from 'next-firebase-auth'

const initAuth = () => {
  init({
    authPageURL: '/auth',
    appPageURL: '/',
    loginAPIEndpoint: '/api/login',
    logoutAPIEndpoint: '/api/logout',
    onLoginRequestError: (err) => {
      console.error(err)
    },
    onLogoutRequestError: (err) => {
      console.error(err)
    },
    firebaseAuthEmulatorHost: 'localhost:9099',
    firebaseAdminInitConfig: {
      credential: {
        projectId: 'my-example-app-id',
        clientEmail: '[e-mail]',
        // The private key must not be accessible on the client side.
        privateKey: process.env.FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY,
      },
      databaseURL: 'https://my-example-app.firebaseio.com',
    },
    // Use application default credentials (takes precedence over firebaseAdminInitConfig if set)
    // useFirebaseAdminDefaultCredential: true,
    firebaseClientInitConfig: {
      apiKey: 'MyExampleAppAPIKey123', // required
      authDomain: 'my-example-app.firebaseapp.com',
      databaseURL: 'https://my-example-app.firebaseio.com',
      projectId: 'my-example-app-id',
    },
    // tenantId: 'example-tenant-id', // Optional, only necessary in multi-tenant configuration
    cookies: {
      name: 'ExampleApp', // required
      // Keys are required unless you set `signed` to `false`.
      // The keys cannot be accessible on the client side.
      keys: [
        process.env.COOKIE_SECRET_CURRENT,
        process.env.COOKIE_SECRET_PREVIOUS,
      ],
      httpOnly: true,
      maxAge: 12 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 1000, // twelve days
      overwrite: true,
      path: '/',
      sameSite: 'strict',
      secure: true, // set this to false in local (non-HTTPS) development
      signed: true,
    },
    onVerifyTokenError: (err) => {
      console.error(err)
    },
    onTokenRefreshError: (err) => {
      console.error(err)
    },
  })
}

export default initAuth

Set the private environment variables FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY, COOKIE_SECRET_CURRENT, and COOKIE_SECRET_PREVIOUS in .env.local. If you have enabled the Firebase Authentication Emulator, you will also need to set the FIREBASE_AUTH_EMULATOR_HOST environment variable.

Initialize next-firebase-auth in _app.js:

// ./pages/_app.js
import initAuth from '../initAuth' // the module you created above

initAuth()

function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return <Component {...pageProps} />
}

export default MyApp

Create login and logout API endpoints that set auth cookies:

// ./pages/api/login
import { setAuthCookies } from 'next-firebase-auth'
import initAuth from '../../initAuth' // the module you created above

initAuth()

const handler = async (req, res) => {
  try {
    await setAuthCookies(req, res)
  } catch (e) {
    return res.status(500).json({ error: 'Unexpected error.' })
  }
  return res.status(200).json({ success: true })
}

export default handler

// ./pages/api/logout
import { unsetAuthCookies } from 'next-firebase-auth'
import initAuth from '../../initAuth' // the module you created above

initAuth()

const handler = async (req, res) => {
  try {
    await unsetAuthCookies(req, res)
  } catch (e) {
    return res.status(500).json({ error: 'Unexpected error.' })
  }
  return res.status(200).json({ success: true })
}

export default handler

Finally, use the authenticated user in a page:

// ./pages/demo
import React from 'react'
import {
  useUser,
  withUser,
  withUserTokenSSR,
} from 'next-firebase-auth'

const Demo = () => {
  const user = useUser()
  return (
    <div>
      <p>Your email is {user.email ? user.email : 'unknown'}.</p>
    </div>
  )
}

// Note that this is a higher-order function.
export const getServerSideProps = withUserTokenSSR()()

export default withUser()(Demo)

API

• init
• withUser
• withUserTokenSSR
• withUserSSR
• useUser
• setAuthCookies
• unsetAuthCookies
• verifyIdToken
• getUserFromCookies
• AuthAction

---

init(config)

Initializes next-firebase-auth, taking a config object. Must be called before calling any other method.

withUser({ ...options })(PageComponent)

A higher-order function to provide the User context to a component. Use this with any Next.js page that will access the authed user via the useUser hook. Optionally, it can client-side redirect based on the user's auth status.

It accepts the following options:

Option	Description	Default
whenAuthed	The action to take if the user is authenticated. One of AuthAction.RENDER or AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP.	AuthAction.RENDER
whenAuthedBeforeRedirect	The action to take while waiting for the browser to redirect. Relevant when the user is authenticated and whenAuthed is set to AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP. One of: AuthAction.RENDER or AuthAction.SHOW_LOADER or AuthAction.RETURN_NULL.	AuthAction.RETURN_NULL
whenUnauthedBeforeInit	The action to take if the user is not authenticated but the Firebase client JS SDK has not yet initialized. One of: AuthAction.RENDER, AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN, AuthAction.SHOW_LOADER.	AuthAction.RENDER
whenUnauthedAfterInit	The action to take if the user is not authenticated and the Firebase client JS SDK has already initialized. One of: AuthAction.RENDER, AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN.	AuthAction.RENDER
appPageURL	The redirect destination URL when we should redirect to the app. A PageURL.	config.appPageURL
authPageURL	The redirect destination URL when we should redirect to the login page. A PageURL.	config.authPageURL
LoaderComponent	The component to render when the user is unauthed and whenUnauthedBeforeInit is set to AuthAction.SHOW_LOADER.	null

For example, this page will redirect to the login page if the user is not authenticated:

import { withUser, AuthAction } from 'next-firebase-auth'

const DemoPage = () => <div>My demo page</div>

export default withUser({
  whenUnauthedAfterInit: AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN,
  authPageURL: '/my-login-page/',
})(DemoPage)

Here's an example of a login page that shows a loader until Firebase is initialized, then redirects to the app if the user is already logged in:

import { withUser, AuthAction } from 'next-firebase-auth'

const MyLoader = () => <div>Loading...</div>

const LoginPage = () => <div>My login page</div>

export default withUser({
  whenAuthed: AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP,
  whenUnauthedBeforeInit: AuthAction.SHOW_LOADER,
  whenUnauthedAfterInit: AuthAction.RENDER,
  LoaderComponent: MyLoader,
})(LoginPage)

For TypeScript usage, take a look here.

withUserTokenSSR({ ...options })(getServerSidePropsFunc = ({ user }) => {})

A higher-order function that wraps a Next.js pages's getServerSideProps function to provide the User context during server-side rendering. Optionally, it can server-side redirect based on the user's auth status. A wrapped function is optional; if provided, it will be called with a context object that contains an user property.

It accepts the following options:

Option	Description	Default
whenAuthed	The action to take if the user is authenticated. Either AuthAction.RENDER or AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP.	AuthAction.RENDER
whenUnauthed	The action to take if the user is not authenticated. Either AuthAction.RENDER or AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN.	AuthAction.RENDER
appPageURL	The redirect destination URL when we should redirect to the app. A PageURL.	config.appPageURL
authPageURL	The redirect destination URL when we should redirect to the login page. A PageURL.	config.authPageURL

For example, this page will SSR for authenticated users, fetching props using their Firebase ID token, and will server-side redirect to the login page if the user is not authenticated:

import {
  useUser,
  withUser,
  withUserTokenSSR,
} from 'next-firebase-auth'

const DemoPage = ({ thing }) => <div>The thing is: {thing}</div>

export const getServerSideProps = withUserTokenSSR({
  whenUnauthed: AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN,
})(async ({ user }) => {
  // Optionally, get other props.
  const token = await user.getIdToken()
  const response = await fetch('/api/my-endpoint', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
      Authorization: token,
    },
  })
  const data = await response.json()
  return {
    props: {
      thing: data.thing,
    },
  }
})

export default withUser()(DemoPage)

withUserSSR({ ...options })(getServerSidePropsFunc = ({ user }) => {})

Behaves nearly identically to withUserTokenSSR, with one key difference: the user will not contain an ID token.

This method relies on authed user data from a cookie rather than verify or refresh a Firebase ID token. Consequently:

• It does not provide an ID token on the server side. The user provided via context will resolve to null when you call user.getIdToken().
• It does not need to make a network request to refresh an expired ID token, so it will, on average, be faster than withUserTokenSSR.
• It does not check for token revocation. If you need verification that the user's credentials haven't been revoked, you should always use withUserTokenSSR.

⚠️ Do not use this when cookies.signed is set to false. Doing so is a potential security risk, because the authed user cookie values could be modified by the client.

This takes the same options as withUserTokenSSR.

useUser()

A hook that returns the current user. To use this, the Next.js page must be wrapped in withUser. If the user is not authenticated, useUser will return a User instance with a null id.

For example:

import { useUser, withUser } from 'next-firebase-auth'

const Demo = () => {
  const user = useUser()
  return (
    <div>
      <p>Your email is {user.email ? user.email : 'unknown'}.</p>
    </div>
  )
}

export default withUser()(Demo)

setAuthCookies(req, res)

Sets cookies to store the authenticated user's info. Call this from your "login" API endpoint.

Cookies are managed with cookies. See the config for cookie options.

The req argument should be an IncomingMessage / Next.js request object. The res argument should be a ServerResponse / Next.js response object. It requires that the Authorization request header be set to the Firebase user ID token, which this package handles automatically.

This can only be called on the server side.

unsetAuthCookies(req, res)

Unsets (expires) the auth cookies. Call this from your "logout" API endpoint.

The req argument should be an IncomingMessage / Next.js request object. The res argument should be a ServerResponse / Next.js response object.

This can only be called on the server side.

verifyIdToken(token) => Promise<User>

Verifies a Firebase ID token and resolves to an User instance. This serves a similar purpose as Firebase admin SDK's verifyIdToken.

getUserFromCookies({ ...options })

Added in v1

Verifies and returns the user from auth cookies. This is an alternative to verifyIdToken, which verifies the user from an ID token.

In general, we recommend that API endpoints use an ID token rather than cookies to identify the user, which avoids some potential CSRF vulnerabilities. However, this method will be helpful for endpoints must rely exclusively on cookie values to identify the user.

This can only be called on the server side.

See this example for more information on using this in a standalone backend environment outside of Next.js.

The options argument can include:

req

Object – an IncomingMessage / Next.js request object

A request object whose cookie header value will be used to verify a user. Either the req value or authCookieValue are required.

includeToken

Boolean

Whether or not the returned user should include a Firebase ID token. Defaults to true. When true, the behavior follows that of withUserTokenSSR; when false, it follows that of withUserSSR. Read more about the distinction in the docs for withUserSSR.

authCookieValue

String

As an alternative to providing the req object, you can directly provide the auth cookie value to use. For example, if your auth cookie is named MyAuth, you would provide the value of the cookie MyAuth.AuthUser (if includeToken is false) or MyAuth.AuthUserTokens (if includeToken is true).

Either the req value or authCookieValue are required.

authCookieSigValue

String

The value of the auth cookie's signature, if using signed cookies. For example, if your auth cookie is named MyAuth, you would provide the value of the cookie MyAuth.AuthUser.sig (if includeToken is false) or MyAuth.AuthUserTokens.sig (if includeToken is true).

AuthAction

An object that defines rendering/redirecting options for withUser and withUserTokenSSR. See AuthAction.

Config

See an example config here. Provide the config when you call init.

authPageURL

String|Function|Object – a PageURL

The default URL to navigate to when withUser or withUserTokenSSR need to redirect to login. Optional unless using the AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN auth action.

appPageURL

String|Function|Object – a PageURL

The default URL to navigate to when withUser or withUserTokenSSR need to redirect to the app. Optional unless using the AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP auth action.

loginAPIEndpoint

String

The API endpoint this module will call when the auth state changes for an authenticated Firebase user.

logoutAPIEndpoint

String

The API endpoint this module will call when the auth state changes for an unauthenticated Firebase user.

onLoginRequestError

Function (optional)

A handler called if the login API endpoint returns a non-200 response. If a handler is not defined, this library will throw on any non-200 responses.

Not used or allowed if a custom tokenChangedHandler is set.

onLogoutRequestError

Function (optional)

A handler called if the logout API endpoint returns a non-200 response. If a handler is not defined, this library will throw on any non-200 responses.

Not used or allowed if a custom tokenChangedHandler is set.

tokenChangedHandler

Function

A callback that runs when the auth state changes for a particular user. Use this if you want to customize how your client-side app calls your login/logout API endpoints (for example, to use a custom fetcher or add custom headers). tokenChangedHandler receives a User as an argument and is called when the user's ID token changes, similarly to Firebase's onIdTokenChanged event.

If this callback is specified, user is responsible for:

1. Calling their login/logout endpoints depending on the user's auth state.
2. Passing the user's ID token in the Authorization header
3. Ensuring it allows the request to set cookies.

See the default handler for guidance.

firebaseAuthEmulatorHost

String

The host and port for the local Firebase Auth Emulator. If this value is set, the auth emulator will be initialized with the provided host and port.

Must match the value of the FIREBASE_AUTH_EMULATOR_HOST environment variable, e.g., localhost:9099.

firebaseAdminInitConfig

Object

Configuration passed to firebase-admin's initializeApp. It should contain a credential property (a plain object) and a databaseURL property. Required unless you initialize firebase-admin yourself before initializing next-firebase-auth.

The firebaseAdminInitConfig.credential.privateKey cannot be defined on the client side and should live in a secret environment variable.

ℹ️ Using Vercel? See adding a private key to Vercel for guidance.

useFirebaseAdminDefaultCredential

Boolean

When true, firebase-admin will implicitly find your hosting environment service account during initializeApp. This is applicable for both Firebase, and Google Cloud Platform, and recommended over adding service account key to the code via file path or direct value.

Note: To setup firebase-admin, either firebaseAdminInitConfig or useFirebaseAdminDefaultCredential must be provided. Using the default credentials will override values passed to firebaseAdminInitConfig.credential if both are presented.

firebaseClientInitConfig

Object

Configuration passed to the Firebase JS SDK's initializeApp. The firebaseClientInitConfig.apiKey value is always required. Other properties are required unless you initialize the firebase app yourself before initializing next-firebase-auth (or, less commonly, if you're running next-firebase-auth solely on the server side).

cookies

Object

Settings used for auth cookies. We use cookies to manage cookies.

Properties include:

• name: Used as a base for cookie names: if name is set to "MyExample", cookies will be named MyExample.AuthUser and MyExample.AuthUserTokens (plus MyExample.AuthUser.sig and MyExample.AuthUserTokens.sig if cookies are signed). Required.
• keys: An array of strings that will be used to sign cookies; for instance, ['xD$WVv3qrP3ywY', '2x6#msoUeNhVHr']. As these strings are secrets, provide them via secret environment variables, such as [ process.env.COOKIE_SECRET_CURRENT, process.env.COOKIE_SECRET_PREVIOUS ]. The keys array is passed to the Keygrip constructor as described in the cookies package. Required unless signed is set to false.
• All options for cookies.set.

The keys value cannot be defined on the client side and should live in a secret environment variable.

For security, the maxAge value must be two weeks or less. Note that maxAge is defined in milliseconds.

Note: The cookies' expirations will be extended automatically when the user loads the Firebase JS SDK.

The Firebase JS SDK is the source of truth for authentication, so if the cookies expire but the user is still authed with Firebase, the cookies will be automatically set again when the user loads the Firebase JS SDK—but the user will not be authed during SSR on that first request.

onVerifyTokenError

Function (optional)

Error handler that will be called if there's an unexpected error while verifying the user's ID token server side. It will receive a Firebase auth error.

This library will not throw when it cannot verify an ID token. Instead, it will provide an unauthenticated user to the app. It will typically handle common auth-related errors such as auth/id-token-expired and auth/user-disabled without throwing. See #366 and #174 for additional background.

onTokenRefreshError

Function (optional)

Error handler that will be called if there's an unexpected error while refreshing the user's ID token server side.

This library will not throw when it cannot refresh an ID token. Instead, it will provide an unauthenticated user to the app. See #366 and #174 for additional background.

Types

AuthAction

Defines actions to take depending on a user's auth status, using the following constants:

AuthAction.RENDER: render the child component

AuthAction.SHOW_LOADER: show a loader component

AuthAction.RETURN_NULL: return null instead of any component

AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_LOGIN: redirect to the login page

AuthAction.REDIRECT_TO_APP: redirect to the app

User

The user object is used across server-side and client-side contexts. This is a normalized representation of a Firebase user.

id - String|null

The Firebase user's ID, or null if the user is not authenticated.

email - String|null

The Firebase user's email address, or null if the user has no email address.

emailVerified - Boolean

Whether the user's email address is verified.

phoneNumber - String|null

Added in v0.13.1

The Firebase user's phone number, or null if the user has no phone number.

displayName - String|null

Added in v0.13.1

The Firebase user's display name, or null if the user has no display name.

photoURL - String|null

Added in v0.13.1

The Firebase user's photo URL, or null if the user has no photo URL.

claims - Object

Added in v0.13.0

Any custom Firebase claims.

getIdToken - Function => Promise<String|null>

An async function that resolves to a valid Firebase ID token string, or null if no valid token is available.

clientInitialized - Boolean

Whether the Firebase JS SDK has initialized. If true, we are no longer using any user info from server-side props.

firebaseUser - FirebaseUser|null

The user from the Firebase JS SDK, if it has been initialized. Otherwise, null.

signOut - Function => Promise<void>

A method that calls Firebase's signOut if the Firebase JS SDK has been initialized. If the SDK has not been initialized, this method is a no-op.

PageURL

String|Function|Object

Used in appPageURL and authPageURL in the config and higher-order components, the PageURL defines a redirect destination URL or path.

It can be a string: /my-url/here/

Or an object:

{
  destination: '/my-url/here/', // Required string: the URL destination of a redirect
  basePath: false, // whether to use the Next.js base path.
}

Or a function that receives { ctx, user } and returns a string or RedirectObject:

const redirect = ({ ctx, user }) => {
  // any custom logic here
  return `/my-url/here/?username=${user.displayName}`
}

The ctx is the Next.js context value if server side, or undefined if client side.

Examples

See EXAMPLES.md.

Troubleshooting

Stuck? Search discussions or open your own Q&A discussion describing what you've already tried.

Something's not working.

Here are some initial steps you can take to debug problems:

1. Define onVerifyTokenError and onTokenRefreshError in your config and check for any error logs.
2. Set debug: true in your config and read through server-side and client-side debug logs for any helpful messages.
3. Try the example app with your own Firebase credentials.
4. Read through other troubleshooting tips below!

I get the error "[Some setting] should not be available on the client side."

We expect certain sensitive config values to be falsy on the client side (see the config validation code). This is a precaution to make sure developers aren't accidentally bundling something like their Firebase private key with client JS.

To fix this, ensure the config setting is undefined on the client side by logging it to your browser console. You can use Next's .env support to set server-only variables. Never use the NEXT_PUBLIC* prefix for any secret values.

I get an "INVALID_CUSTOM_TOKEN" error when trying to get a refresh token.

This package will call a Google endpoint when it needs to refresh a token server side. You're seeing an error from that request.

To fix this, confirm that your firebaseAdminInitConfig.credential.clientEmail is correct. It should be the email paired with your Firebase private key.

If that doesn't help, try inspecting the custom token to manually validate the values and structure. Some people encounter this problem when their server time is incorrect.

Server-side auth is not working. The user and token are always null when using withUserTokenSSR, but client-side auth works.

If auth is working on the client side but not on the server side, the auth cookies are most likely not set.

To fix this, confirm the auth cookies are set in your browser's dev tools. If they're not set, please check that the secure, sameSite, and path options passed in the next-firebase-auth config make sense for your environment. For example, if you're testing on non-HTTPS localhost, make sure secure is false.

In addition, please double-check your server logs for any errors to ensure the Firebase admin app is initializing properly.

I get an "auth/argument-error" with message "Firebase ID token has invalid signature".

Often, this is caused by an incorrect email in Firebase credentials. Please verify that the email is correct and is from the same Firebase account as your private key, or try generating a new key: https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/setup

You can try setting up your credentials in the example app to be sure your app code isn't a problem.

In local development, try clearing data/cookies for localhost in case you previously signed in with another Firebase account and still have auth cookies signed by another private key.

You can also try disabling the Firebase Authentication Emulator. Remove firebaseAuthEmulatorHost from your config and remove FIREBASE_AUTH_EMULATOR_HOST from your .env file.

I get the error, "Failed to parse private key: Error: Invalid PEM formatted message."

See adding a private key to Vercel and this discussion on private key formatting.

Limitations & Feedback

We expect some apps will need some features that are not currently available:

• Supporting custom session logic: Currently, this package doesn't allow using a custom cookie or session module. Some developers may need this flexibility to, for example, keep user data in server-side session storage.
• Setting a single auth cookie: This package currently sets more than one cookie to store authentication state. It's not currently possible to use a single cookie with a customized name: #190

We'd love to hear your feedback on these or other features. Please feel free to open a discussion!

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see contributing docs to get started.