Upgrading @clerk/remix to Core 2

Core 2 is included in the Remix SDK starting with version 4. This new version ships with an improved design and UX for its built-in components, no "flash of white page" when authenticating, no more need to add a custom error boundary, and a variety of smaller DX improvements and housekeeping items. Each of the potentially breaking changes are detailed in this guide, below.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have successfully upgraded your Remix project to use @clerk/remix v4. You’ll learn how to update your dependencies, resolve breaking changes, and find deprecations. Step-by-step instructions will lead you through the process.

Preparing to upgrade

Before uprading, it's highly recommended that you update your Clerk SDKs to the latest Core 1 version (npm i @clerk/remix@3). Some changes required for Core 2 SDKs can be applied incrementally to the v4 release, which should contribute to a smoother upgrading experience. After updating, look out for deprecation messages in your terminal and browser console. By resolving these deprecations you'll be able to skip many breaking changes from Core 2.

Additionally, some of the minumum version requirements for some base dependencies have been updated such that versions that are no longer supported or are at end-of-life are no longer guaranteed to work correctly with Clerk.

Updating Node.js

You need to have Node.js 18.17.0 or later installed. Last year, Node.js 16 entered EOL (End of life) status, so support for this version has been removed across Clerk SDKs. You can check your Node.js version by running node -v in your terminal. Learn more about how to update and install Node.js(opens in a new tab).

Updating React

All react-dependent Clerk SDKs now require you to use React 18 or higher. You can update your project by installing the latest version of react and react-dom.

terminal
npm install react@latest react-dom@latest

terminal
yarn add react@latest react-dom@latest

terminal
pnpm add react@latest react-dom@latest

If you are upgrading from React 17 or lower, make sure to learn about how to upgrade your React version to 18(opens in a new tab) as well.

Updating to Core 2 Beta

Whenever you feel ready, go ahead and install the latest beta version of any Clerk SDKs you are using. Make sure that you are prepared to patch some breaking changes before your app will work properly, however. The commands below demonstrate how to install the latest beta.

terminal
npm install @clerk/remix@beta

terminal
yarn add @clerk/remix@beta

terminal
pnpm add @clerk/remix@beta

CLI upgrade helper

Clerk now provides a @clerk/upgrade CLI tool that you can use to ease the upgrade process. The tool will scan your codebase and produce a list of changes you'll need to apply to your project. It should catch the vast majority of the changes needed for a successful upgrade to any SDK including Core 2. This can save you a lot of time reading through changes that don't apply to your project.

To run the CLI tool, navigate to your project and run it in the terminal:

terminal
npx @clerk/upgrade

terminal
yarn dlx @clerk/upgrade

terminal
pnpm dlx @clerk/upgrade

If you are having trouble with npx, it's also possible to install directly with npm i @clerk/upgrade -g, and can then be run with the clerk-upgrade command.

Breaking Changes

ClerkErrorBoundary removed

ClerkErrorBoundary is no longer needed for correct error handling in remix, so we have removed this function from the remix SDK, and it can be removed from your code as well. Example below:

 import { rootAuthLoader } from '@clerk/remix/ssr.server';
 import {
     ClerkApp,
-    ClerkErrorBoundary
 } from '@clerk/remix';
 
 export const loader = (args: DataFunctionArgs) => {
   return rootAuthLoader(args);
 };
 
 export default ClerkApp(App);
 
- export const ErrorBoundary = ClerkErrorBoundary();

Component design adjustments

The new version ships with improved design and UX across all of Clerk's UI components. If you have used the appearance prop or tokens for a custom theme, you will likely need to make some adjustments to ensure your styling is still looking great. If you're using the localization prop you will likely need to make adjustments to account for added or removed localization keys.

More detail on these changes »

After sign up/in/out URL handling

Defining redirect URLs for after sign up, in, and/or out via the Clerk dashboard has been removed in Core 2. In your Clerk dashboard, under "paths", there is a section called "Component paths", where URLs could be defined that had a deprecation warning. In Core 2, this functionality has been removed, and specifying redirect paths via the dashboard will no longer work. If you need to pass a redirect URL for after sign in/up/out, there are a few different ways this can be done(opens in a new tab), from environment variables to middleware to supplying them directly to the relevant components.

As part of this change, the default URL for each of these props has been set to /, so if you are passing / explicitly to any one of the above props, that line is no longer necessary and can be removed.

- <UserButton afterSignOutUrl='/' />
+ <UserButton />

Removed: orgs claim on JWT

In the previous version of Clerk's SDKs, if you decode the session token that Clerk returns from the server, you'll currently find an orgs claim on it. It lists all the orgs associated with the given user. Now, Clerk returns the org_id, org_slug, and org_role of the active organization.

The orgs claim was part of the JwtPayload. Here are a few examples of where the JwtPayload could be found.

Next.js
import { getAuth } from "@clerk/nextjs/server"
const claims: JwtPayload = getAuth(request).sessionClaims
 
import { getAuth } from "@clerk/ssr.server"
const claims: JwtPayload = (await getAuth(request)).sessionClaims

Fastify
import { getAuth } from "@clerk/fastify"
const claims: JwtPayload = (await getAuth(request)).sessionClaims

@clerk/backend
import { createClerkClient } from "@clerk/backend"
 
const clerkClient = createClerkClient({ secretKey: "" })
const requestState = await clerkClient.authenticateRequest(
  request,
  { publishableKey: "" }
)
const claims: JwtPayload = requestState.toAuth().sessionClaims

@clerk/clerk-sdk-node
import { clerkClient } from "@clerk/clerk-sdk-node"
 
router.use((...args) => clerkClient.expressRequireAuth()(...args))
router.get("/me", async (req, reply: Response) => {
  return reply.json({ auth: req.auth })
})

If you would like to have your JWT return all of the user's organizations, you can create a custom JWT template in your dashboard. Add { "orgs": "user.organizations" } to it.

Path routing is now the default

On components like <SignIn /> you can define the props routing and path. routing can be set to 'hash' | 'path' | 'virtual' and describes the routing strategy that should be used. path defines where the component is mounted when routing="path" is used.

In the latest version, the default routing strategy has become 'path'. Unless you change the routing prop, you'll need to define the path prop. The affected components are:

• <SignIn />
• <SignUp />
• <UserProfile />
• <CreateOrganization />
• <OrganizationProfile />

Here's how you'd use the components going forward:

<SignIn path="/sign-in" />
<SignUp path="/sign-up" />
<UserProfile path="/user-profile" />
<CreateOrganization path="/create-org" />
<OrganizationProfile path="/org-profile" />

If you don't define the path prop an error will be thrown. Of course, you can still use routing="hash" or routing="virtual".

<UserProfile routing="hash" />
<OrganizationProfile routing="virtual" />

For the @clerk/remix SDK, you can set environment variables for the sign up/in URLs and avoid needing to explicitly pass the path to the <SignIn /> and <SignUp /> components.

.env
CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL=/sign-in
CLERK_SIGN_UP_URL=/sign-up

If you have defined both environment variables, you're able to use the <SignIn /> and <SignUp /> components without any props, as such:

<SignIn />
<SignUp />

Image URL Name Consolidation

There are a number of Clerk primitives that contain images, and previously they each had different property names, like avatarUrl, logoUrl, profileImageUrl, etc. In order to promote consistency and make it simpler for developers to know where to find associated images, all image properties are now named imageUrl. See the list below for all affected classes:

Deprecation removals & housekeeping

As part of this major version, a number of previously deprecated props, arugments, methods, etc. have been removed. Additionally there have been some changes to things that are only used internally, or only used very rarely. It's highly unlikely that any given app will encounter any of these items, but they are all breaking changes, so they have all been documented below.

Deprecation removals

- user.update({ password: 'foo' });
 
+ user.updatePassword({
+   currentPassword: 'bar',
+   newPassword: 'foo',
+   signOutOfOtherSessions: true,
+ });

import { createClerkClient } from '@clerk/remix/api.server';
 
- createClerkClient({ apiKey: '...' });
+ createClerkClient({ secretKey: '...' });

import { rootAuthLoader } from '@clerk/remix/ssr.server';
 
- export const loader = args => rootAuthLoader(args, { apiKey: '...' });
+ export const loader = args => rootAuthLoader(args, { secretKey: '...' });

import { getAuth } from '@clerk/remix/ssr.server';
 
export const loader: LoaderFunction = async args => {
-  return getAuth(args, { apiKey: '...' });
+  return getAuth(args, { secretKey: '...' });
};

import { rootAuthLoader } from '@clerk/remix/ssr.server';
 
- export const loader = args => rootAuthLoader(args, { frontendApi: '...' });
+ export const loader = args => rootAuthLoader(args, { publishableKey: '...' });

- import Clerk from "@clerk/remix"
+ import { createClerkClient } from "@clerk/remix"

Other Breaking changes

- await setSession('sessionID', () => void)
+ await setActive({ session: 'sessionID',  beforeEmit: () => void })
 
- await setSession(sessionObj)
+ await setActive({ session: sessionObj })
 
- await setSession(sessionObj, () => void)
+ await setActive({ session: sessionObj,  beforeEmit: () => void })

await setActive({
  session: 'sessionID',
  organization: 'orgID',
  beforeEmit: () => void
})
 
await setActive({
  session: sessionObj,
  organization: orgObj,
  beforeEmit: () => void
})

- Organization.create('...');
+ Organization.create({ name: '...' });

- Organization.getPendingInvitations();
+ Organization.getInvitations({ status: 'pending' });

  import { SignOutButton } from "@clerk/clerk-react";
 
  export const Signout = () => {
    return (
      <SignOutButton
-       signOutCallback={() => { window.location.href = "/your-path" }}
+       redirectUrl="/your-path"
      >
        <button>Sign Out</button>
      </SignOutButton>
    )
  }