Better Auth

Better Auth is a authentication framework for TypeScript. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, while also being powerful and flexible. It does so by providing a set of basic building blocks that can be used to create your authentication flow, and a large collection of plugins that can be used to extend the framework.

Concepts

To understand how Better Auth works, it is important to understand the concepts which it is built on. I will only cover the most important ones here, but if you want to learn more, you can check out the documentation.

API

The API is the core of Better Auth, you can access it by creating a BetterAuth instance. In a Create TNT Stack app this step is done for you. The API can be accessed by importing the auth object from @/server/auth.

The API exposes a set of methods that can be used to create your authentication flow. Below you can see an example of how to use the API to get the current user's session.

Copyimport { headers } from "next/headers"
 
import { auth } from "@/server/auth"
 
await auth.api.getSession({
  headers: await headers(),
})

Client

The client library is similar to the API, but it is designed to be used with frontend frameworks like React. It includes a set of methods that can be used to create your authentication flow. Below you can see an example of how to use the client library to get the current user's session.

Copyimport { useSession } from "@/src/lib/auth/client"
 
const {
  data: session,
  isPending, // loading state
  error, // error object
  refetch, // refetch the session
} = useSession()

CLI

The CLI is a powerful, built-in tool to help you manage your database schemas, and more.

Generate

The generate command is used to generate the schema required for Better Auth. When using Prisma or Drizzle, this command will generate the appropriate schema for your ORM.

npmyarnpnpmbun
pnpm dlx @better-auth/cli@latest generate
Copy

For more information on the generate command, check out the CLI documentation.

Migrate

The migrate command is used to apply the generated schema to your database. This command is NOT available when you are using an ORM. If you are using Prisma or Drizzle, you must apply the generated schema manually using the provided migration commands.

npmyarnpnpmbun
pnpm dlx @better-auth/cli@latest migrate
Copy

For more information on the migrate command, check out the CLI documentation.

Secret

Create TNT Stack will automatically generate a secret for you. However, if you want to generate a new secret, you can use the secret command.

npmyarnpnpmbun
pnpm dlx @better-auth/cli@latest secret
Copy

Useful Resources