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Hooks

Hooks in Better Auth let you "hook into" the lifecycle and execute custom logic. They provide a way to customize Better Auth's behavior without writing a full plugin.

We highly recommend using hooks if you need to make custom adjustments to an endpoint rather than making another endpoint outside of better auth.

Before Hooks

Before hooks run before an endpoint is executed. Use them to modify requests, pre validate data, or return early.

Example: Enforce Email Domain Restriction

This hook ensures that users can only sign up if their email ends with @example.com:

auth.ts
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { createAuthMiddleware, APIError } from "better-auth/api";
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    hooks: {
        before: createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
            if (ctx.path !== "/sign-up/email") {
                return;
            }
            if (!ctx.body?.email.endsWith("@example.com")) {
                throw new APIError("BAD_REQUEST", {
                    message: "Email must end with @example.com",
                });
            }
        }),
    },
});

Example: Modify Request Context

To adjust the request context before proceeding:

auth.ts
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { createAuthMiddleware } from "better-auth/api";
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    hooks: {
        before: createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
            if (ctx.path === "/sign-up/email") {
                return {
                    context: {
                        ...ctx,
                        body: {
                            ...ctx.body,
                            name: "John Doe",
                        },
                    }
                };
            }
        }),
    },
});

After Hooks

After hooks run after an endpoint is executed. Use them to modify responses.

Example: Send a notification to your channel when a new user is registered

auth.ts
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { createAuthMiddleware } from "better-auth/api";
import { sendMessage } from "@/lib/notification"
 
export const auth = betterAuth({
    hooks: {
        after: createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
            if(ctx.path.startsWith("/sign-up")){
                const newSession = ctx.context.newSession;
                if(newSession){
                    sendMessage({
                        type: "user-register",
                        name: newSession.user.name,
                    })
                }
            }
        }),
    },
});

Ctx

When you call createAuthMiddleware a ctx object is passed that provides a lot of useful properties. Including:

  • Path: ctx.path to get the current endpoint path.
  • Body: ctx.body for parsed request body (available for POST requests).
  • Headers: ctx.headers to access request headers.
  • Request: ctx.request to access the request object (may not exist in server-only endpoints).
  • Query Parameters: ctx.query to access query parameters.
  • Context: ctx.context auth related context, useful for accessing new session, auth cookies configuration, password hashing, config...

and more.

Request Response

This utilities allows you to get request information and to send response from a hook.

JSON Responses

Use ctx.json to send JSON responses:

const hook = createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    return ctx.json({
        message: "Hello World",
    });
});

Redirects

Use ctx.redirect to redirect users:

import { createAuthMiddleware } from "better-auth/api";
 
const hook = createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    throw ctx.redirect("/sign-up/name");
});

Cookies

  • Set cookies: ctx.setCookies or ctx.setSignedCookie.
  • Get cookies: ctx.getCookies or ctx.getSignedCookies.

Example:

import { createAuthMiddleware } from "better-auth/api";
 
const hook = createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    ctx.setCookies("my-cookie", "value");
    await ctx.setSignedCookie("my-signed-cookie", "value", ctx.context.secret, {
        maxAge: 1000,
    });
 
    const cookie = ctx.getCookies("my-cookie");
    const signedCookie = await ctx.getSignedCookies("my-signed-cookie");
});

Errors

Throw errors with APIError for a specific status code and message:

import { createAuthMiddleware, APIError } from "better-auth/api";
 
const hook = createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    throw new APIError("BAD_REQUEST", {
        message: "Invalid request",
    });
});

Context

The ctx object contains another context object inside that's meant to hold contexts related to auth. Including a newly created session on after hook, cookies configuration, password hasher and so on.

New Session

The newly created session after an endpoint is run. This only exist in after hook.

auth.ts
createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    const newSession = ctx.context.newSession
});

Predefined Auth Cookies

Access BetterAuth’s predefined cookie properties:

auth.ts
createAuthMiddleware(async (ctx) => {
    const cookieName = ctx.context.authCookies.sessionToken.name;
});

Secret

You can access the secret for your auth instance on ctx.context.secret

Password

The password object provider hash and verify

  • ctx.context.password.hash: let's you hash a given password.
  • ctx.context.password.verify: let's you verify given password and a hash.

Adapter

Adapter exposes the adapter methods used by better auth. Including findOne, findMany, create, delete, update and updateMany. You generally should use your actually db instance from your orm rather than this adapter.

Internal Adapter

These are calls to your db that perform specific actions. createUser, createSession, updateSession...

This may be useful to use instead of using your db directly to get access to databaseHooks, proper secondaryStorage support and so on. If you're make a query similar to what exist in this internal adapter actions it's worth a look.

generateId

You can use ctx.context.generateId to generate Id for various reasons.

Reusable Hooks

If you need to reuse a hook across multiple endpoints, consider creating a plugin. Learn more in the Plugins Documentation.

Email

Learn how to use email with Better Auth.

Plugins

Learn how to use plugins with Better Auth.

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