User authentication involves verifying the identity of users and granting them appropriate access to certain parts of an application. So, today we’re going to look at how you can build you own user authentication system with Next.js with ease!

NextAuth.js is a powerful library that simplifies the implementation of authentication in Next.js applications, offering support for various authentication providers and methods out of the box. Prisma, on the other hand, is a modern database toolkit that provides a type-safe and efficient way to interact with databases.

Setting Up the Next.js Project

Begin by setting up a new Next.js project. You can use the following commands:

npx create-next-app my-auth-app
cd my-auth-app

Installing and Configuring Prisma

Prisma simplifies database interactions by generating type-safe query methods based on your database schema. To get started, install Prisma and its required dependencies:

npm install prisma

Next, configure Prisma by creating a schema.prisma file in your project root. Define your data model, including the User entity for authentication:

// schema.prisma

model User {
  id       Int      @id @default(autoincrement())
  email    String   @unique
  password String
  // Add other user-related fields here
}

After defining your schema, run the following command to generate Prisma client:

npx prisma generate

Integrating NextAuth.js for Authentication

NextAuth.js provides an easy way to handle authentication in your Next.js app. Install it along with its peer dependencies:

npm install next-auth

Create a new file named pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js. This file will handle authentication routes: