Better Auth•2w ago

Better auth does not work on NextJS

Hi guys, im trying to add Better Auth to my empty nextjs project but it does not work. I copied the demo project and it does work there, i copied every auth related file but i still cant get it to work in my project. im trying to check the session on a server component like this but the session is always null. I have not added a database as i dont need one, im logging in using my google account. I keep getting redirected to /sign-in and the console shows this error:

2025-04-20T19:46:49.619Z WARN [Better Auth]: No database configuration provided. Using memory adapter in development
[Error [APIError]: ] {
  status: 'UNAUTHORIZED',
  body: undefined,
  headers: {},
  statusCode: 401
}
 GET /dashboard 307 in 67ms
 GET /sign-in 200 in 65ms

2025-04-20T19:46:49.619Z WARN [Better Auth]: No database configuration provided. Using memory adapter in development
[Error [APIError]: ] {
  status: 'UNAUTHORIZED',
  body: undefined,
  headers: {},
  statusCode: 401
}
 GET /dashboard 307 in 67ms
 GET /sign-in 200 in 65ms

My dashboard page:

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";
import { headers } from "next/headers";
import { redirect } from "next/navigation";

export default async function DashboardPage() {
  const [session, activeSessions] = await Promise.all([
    auth.api.getSession({
      headers: await headers(),
    }),
    auth.api.listSessions({
      headers: await headers(),
    }),
  ]).catch((e) => {
    console.log(e);
    throw redirect("/sign-in");
  });

  console.log(activeSessions, session);
  return (
    <div className="w-full">
      <div className="flex gap-4 flex-col">
        <h1 className="text-2xl font-bold">{session?.user}</h1>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";
import { headers } from "next/headers";
import { redirect } from "next/navigation";

export default async function DashboardPage() {
  const [session, activeSessions] = await Promise.all([
    auth.api.getSession({
      headers: await headers(),
    }),
    auth.api.listSessions({
      headers: await headers(),
    }),
  ]).catch((e) => {
    console.log(e);
    throw redirect("/sign-in");
  });

  console.log(activeSessions, session);
  return (
    <div className="w-full">
      <div className="flex gap-4 flex-col">
        <h1 className="text-2xl font-bold">{session?.user}</h1>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

14 Replies

daveycodez•2w ago

Did you enable the nextCookies plugin

jeffreyyvdbOP•2w ago

@daveycodez Yes, i added it like this but does not seem to help

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { nextCookies } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  appName: "Better Auth Demo",
  socialProviders: {
    google: {
      clientId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID || "",
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET || "",
    },
  },
  plugins: [nextCookies()],
});

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { nextCookies } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  appName: "Better Auth Demo",
  socialProviders: {
    google: {
      clientId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID || "",
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET || "",
    },
  },
  plugins: [nextCookies()],
});

daveycodez•2w ago

Are you seeing cookies get set in chrome inspector

rhitune•2w ago

2025-04-20T19:46:49.619Z WARN [Better Auth]: No database configuration provided. Using memory adapter in development is it your full auth config? if its , its wrong if not, send all config not about nextCookies plugin

jeffreyyvdbOP•2w ago

Yes this is my auth config, i also have a auth-client, middleware and a api route for auth. auth.ts:

typescript 
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { nextCookies } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  appName: "Better Auth Demo",
  socialProviders: {
    google: {
      clientId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID || "",
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET || "",
    },
  },
  plugins: [nextCookies()],
});

typescript 
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { nextCookies } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  appName: "Better Auth Demo",
  socialProviders: {
    google: {
      clientId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID || "",
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET || "",
    },
  },
  plugins: [nextCookies()],
});

auth-client.ts:

typescript 
import { createAuthClient } from "better-auth/react";

import { toast } from "sonner";

export const client = createAuthClient({
  fetchOptions: {
    onError(e) {
      if (e.error.status === 429) {
        toast.error("Too many requests. Please try again later.");
      }
    },
  },
});

export const { signUp, signIn, signOut, useSession } = client;

client.$store.listen("$sessionSignal", async () => {});

typescript 
import { createAuthClient } from "better-auth/react";

import { toast } from "sonner";

export const client = createAuthClient({
  fetchOptions: {
    onError(e) {
      if (e.error.status === 429) {
        toast.error("Too many requests. Please try again later.");
      }
    },
  },
});

export const { signUp, signIn, signOut, useSession } = client;

client.$store.listen("$sessionSignal", async () => {});

Middleware

typescript 
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  if (!cookies) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

export const config = {
  matcher: ["/"],
};

typescript 
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  if (!cookies) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

export const config = {
  matcher: ["/"],
};

api/auth/[...all]/route.ts:

typescript 
import { auth } from "@/lib/auth"; // path to your auth file
import { toNextJsHandler } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const { POST, GET } = toNextJsHandler(auth);

typescript 
import { auth } from "@/lib/auth"; // path to your auth file
import { toNextJsHandler } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const { POST, GET } = toNextJsHandler(auth);

Do i miss anything?

daveycodez•2w ago

Your middleware looks like an infinite redirect whenever at "/" and no cookies, redirect to "/"

jeffreyyvdbOP•2w ago

true, i changed it to be more logical, but the issues still exists

import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  if (!cookies) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/sign-in", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

export const config = {
  matcher: ["/dashboard"],
};

import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  if (!cookies) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/sign-in", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

export const config = {
  matcher: ["/dashboard"],
};

daveycodez•2w ago

Cookies in Chrome console?

jeffreyyvdbOP•2w ago

Seems to be okay

MKTSoft•7d ago

For better performance, you can change your middleware to see.

import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
 // add here all your public paths 
  const path = request.nextUrl.pathname;
  const publicPaths = ["/", "/sign-in", "/sign-up", "/forgot-password"];
  // and here your api path
  const apiPaths = "/api";

  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  // Ignore your API path 
  if (path.startsWith(apiPaths)) {
    return NextResponse.next();
  }

  if (!cookies && !publicPaths.includes(path)) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/sign-in", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

// Change your config like this
export const config = {
  // Skip Next.js internals and all static files, unless found in search params
    "/((?!_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)(.*)",
};

import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { getSessionCookie } from "better-auth/cookies";

export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
 // add here all your public paths 
  const path = request.nextUrl.pathname;
  const publicPaths = ["/", "/sign-in", "/sign-up", "/forgot-password"];
  // and here your api path
  const apiPaths = "/api";

  const cookies = getSessionCookie(request);

  // Ignore your API path 
  if (path.startsWith(apiPaths)) {
    return NextResponse.next();
  }

  if (!cookies && !publicPaths.includes(path)) {
    return NextResponse.redirect(new URL("/sign-in", request.url));
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

// Change your config like this
export const config = {
  // Skip Next.js internals and all static files, unless found in search params
    "/((?!_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)(.*)",
};

jeffreyyvdbOP•7d ago

Okay thank you, but does not seem to be the solution to why I don't have a session in my dashboard page (server side)

rhitune•7d ago

bro where is your database

  database: drizzleAdapter(db, {
    provider: "pg",
  }),

  database: drizzleAdapter(db, {
    provider: "pg",
  }),

of course you cant access to session because there is no database

jeffreyyvdbOP•7d ago

2025-04-20T19:46:49.619Z WARN [Better Auth]: No database configuration provided. Using memory adapter in development This warning made me think it is possible to work with the in memory adapter

daveycodez•7d ago

Don’t do this if you host on Vercel. This will be excessive middleware requests. It’s better to only run it when you need it The only time you need catch all middleware is for localization routing (next-intl) If you are only protecting specific routes with optimistic cookie checks, then hardcode them into the middleware check Next.js docs encourage you to use practices that cause you to pay $$$$ to Vercel unnecessarily across the board Like excessive dynamic SSR

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Better auth does not work on NextJS

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