Skill

clerk-vue-patterns

Name: clerk-vue-patterns
Author: Clerk

implement Clerk auth in Vue 3 apps

Published by Clerk Updated Apr 7

Covers Clerk Vue Authentication Frontend State Management

Description

Vue 3 patterns with Clerk — composables (useAuth, useUser, useClerk, useOrganization), Vue Router guards, Pinia auth store integration. Triggers on: vue clerk, useAuth vue, clerk composables, vue router clerk guard, pinia auth clerk. For Nuxt, use clerk-nuxt-patterns instead.

SKILL.md

Vue Patterns

SDK: @clerk/vue v2+ (Vue 3). For Nuxt, use clerk-nuxt-patterns.

What Do You Need?

Task	Reference
Composables: useAuth, useUser, useOrganization	references/composables.md
Vue Router navigation guards	references/vue-router-guards.md
Pinia store with auth state	references/pinia-integration.md

Mental Model

Vue uses composables from @clerk/vue:

useAuth() — reactive isSignedIn, userId, signOut
useUser() — reactive user object
useClerk() — full Clerk instance for advanced operations
useOrganization() — reactive organization, membership

Setup

Vue (Plain)

// main.ts
import { clerkPlugin } from '@clerk/vue'
import { createApp } from 'vue'
import App from './App.vue'

const app = createApp(App)
app.use(clerkPlugin, {
  publishableKey: import.meta.env.VITE_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY,
})
app.mount('#app')

Composables Usage

<script setup lang="ts">
import { useAuth, useUser } from '@clerk/vue'

const { isSignedIn, userId, signOut } = useAuth()
const { user } = useUser()
</script>

<template>
  <div v-if="isSignedIn">
    <p>Hello {{ user?.firstName }}</p>
    <button @click="signOut()">Sign Out</button>
  </div>
  <SignInButton v-else />
</template>

Org Switching

<script setup lang="ts">
import { useOrganizationList } from '@clerk/vue'

const { userMemberships, setActive } = useOrganizationList()
</script>

<template>
  <button
    v-for="mem in userMemberships.data ?? []"
    :key="mem.organization.id"
    @click="setActive({ organization: mem.organization.id })"
  >
    {{ mem.organization.name }}
  </button>
</template>

Common Pitfalls

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Composables return `undefined`	Not inside `ClerkProvider` tree	Ensure `app.use(clerkPlugin, { publishableKey })` is called
`userId` reactive but not updating	Destructuring loses reactivity	Use `const { userId } = useAuth()` (toRefs-style composable, reactive)

Import Map

What	Import
Composables	`@clerk/vue`
Plugin setup	`@clerk/vue`
Components	`@clerk/vue`

Docs

Vue SDK

More skills from the skills repository

View all 20 skills

SkillTagsUpdated

More from Clerk

View publisher

SkillTagsUpdated