Clerk
Modern authentication and user management SDK for Next.js and React.
Auth and security libraries npm MIT
Used in agent projects
75
0.6% of 12,697 public repos built with AI coding agents
Rank in auth and security libraries
#14 of 47
by use in those projects
Downloads
2.7M
npm, last 7 days, @clerk/nextjs
GitHub stars
1,763
last push Oct 9, 2026
How Clerk is used
Clerk is a dependency in 75 of the 12,697 public GitHub projects set up for AI coding agents that we scanned (0.6%), #14 of 47 in auth and security libraries. The most used alternative there is NextAuth.js. Projects that use it most often also use clsx (73.3%), Tailwind Merge (73.3%), Lucide React (74.7%). It is more common in projects set up for Roo Code (6.2%) than for Claude Code (0.8%).
Often used with Clerk
| clsx | 73.3% of Clerk projects · 4.1× more than average |
|---|---|
| Tailwind Merge | 73.3% of Clerk projects · 4.4× more than average |
| Lucide React | 74.7% of Clerk projects · 3.8× more than average |
| Class Variance Authority | 69.3% of Clerk projects · 4.9× more than average |
| Radix UI | 66.7% of Clerk projects · 5.6× more than average |
| Zod | 61.3% of Clerk projects · 3.6× more than average |
| Tailwind CSS | 88.0% of Clerk projects · 2.5× more than average |
| Next.js | 69.3% of Clerk projects · 3.1× more than average |
By coding agent
| Cursor | 1.5% of projects set up for it |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | 0.8% of projects set up for it |
| GitHub Copilot | 0.8% of projects set up for it |
| Devin Desktop | 3.6% of projects set up for it |
| Roo Code | 6.2% of projects set up for it |
| OpenAI Codex | 1.3% of projects set up for it |
| Gemini CLI | 1.4% of projects set up for it |
Share of public repos configured for each agent that list Clerk as a dependency.
Install
| Package | npm install @clerk/nextjs |
|---|---|
| Packages counted | @clerk/nextjs, @clerk/clerk-react, @clerk/themes, @clerk/localizations, @clerk/clerk-expo, @clerk/backend, @clerk/react, @clerk/expo |
| Main stacks | Next.js (53), TypeScript / JavaScript (15), React Native / Expo (5), Other (1) |
| Example projects | LiorVainer/data-israel, Kevin-Liu-01/Loop, johnsi15/linknote, BeWaterXYZ/bewater-frontend |
Alternatives to Clerk
| Tool | Used in agent projects | Downloads / wk | GitHub stars | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NextAuth.js npm Complete open-source authentication solution designed for Next.js applications. |
266 (2.1%) | 6.7M | 28.4K | ISC |
| bcryptjs npm Pure JavaScript bcrypt implementation for secure password hashing without dependencies. |
256 (2.0%) | 14.7M | 3,797 | BSD-3-Clause |
| jsonwebtoken npm Create, verify and decode JSON Web Tokens for authentication and secure data transmission. |
241 (1.9%) | 59.3M | 18.2K | MIT |
| cryptography pypi Python library providing cryptographic recipes and primitives for secure applications. |
213 (1.7%) | 281M | 7,803 | — |
| jose npm Comprehensive JWT and JWK handling for Node.js and web runtimes. |
141 (1.1%) | 151M | 7,824 | MIT |
| PyJWT pypi Python library for encoding and decoding JSON Web Tokens. |
128 (1.0%) | 154M | 5,714 | — |
| Better Auth npm Comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript with multiple strategies. |
126 (1.0%) | 11.4M | 30.2K | MIT |
| Helmet npm Express middleware that sets HTTP security headers to prevent vulnerabilities. |
125 (1.0%) | 16.2M | 10.7K | MIT |