Expo Clerk Convex

This repository is an Expo starter focused on email/password authentication with Clerk, Convex, and Expo Router route protection.

This is not supposed to be a template, boilerplate or a framework. It is an opinionated guide that shows how to do some things in a certain way. You are not forced to do everything exactly as it is shown here, decide what works best for you and your team and stay consistent with your style.

1. Configure Clerk

   • Create a Clerk application at dashboard.clerk.com.
   • Enable email/password authentication for the application.
   • Configure email verification to use an email code flow for sign-up.
   • Enable the Convex integration for the Clerk application.
   • Copy the Clerk Frontend API URL that Convex will use as CLERK_JWT_ISSUER_DOMAIN.

2. Clone the repository to your local machine

git clone https://github.com/FlemingVincent/expo-clerk-convex.git

3. Navigate to the project directory

cd expo-clerk-convex

4. Install dependencies

bun install

5. Create a Convex dev deployment

npx convex dev

This command creates the convex/ backend, prompts you to sign in to Convex, and prints the deployment URL you need for the Expo app.

6. Update environment variables

   • Add EXPO_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY to your .env.local file with your Clerk publishable key.
   • Add EXPO_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL to your .env.local file with your Convex deployment URL.
   • Add CLERK_JWT_ISSUER_DOMAIN to your Convex environment variables with the Clerk Frontend API URL.

7. Start the Expo development server

npx expo start --clear --reset-cache

• Sign in uses Clerk email/password authentication.
• Sign up creates the account, sends an email verification code, and completes verification in-app.
• Route access is controlled by Clerk auth state in the root Expo Router layout.
• Convex trusts the authenticated Clerk session for backend access, without mirroring Clerk users into a Convex users table.

Contributions to this starter project are highly encouraged and welcome! If you have any suggestions, bug reports, or feature requests, please feel free to create an issue or submit a pull request. Let's work together to enhance the developer experience and make it easier for everyone to build exceptional Expo applications with Clerk.

This repository is licensed under the MIT License. You are granted the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the code for personal or commercial purposes. For more details, please refer to the LICENSE file.