adonisjs-jwt

3rd Party
Authentication with JWT token for AdonisJS
Authentication
Created Mar 16, 2024 Updated Jun 11, 2025

@maximemrf/adonisjs-jwt

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AdonisJS package to authenticate users using JWT tokens.

Prerequisites

You have to install the auth package from AdonisJS

node ace add @adonisjs/auth

Setup

Install the package:

npm i @maximemrf/adonisjs-jwt

Usage

Go to config/auth.ts and add the following configuration:

import { defineConfig } from '@adonisjs/auth'
import { InferAuthEvents, Authenticators } from '@adonisjs/auth/types'
import { sessionGuard, sessionUserProvider } from '@adonisjs/auth/session'
import { tokensUserProvider } from '@adonisjs/auth/access_tokens'
import { jwtGuard } from '@maximemrf/adonisjs-jwt/jwt_config'
import { JwtGuardUser, BaseJwtContent } from '@maximemrf/adonisjs-jwt/types'
import User from '#models/user'
import env from '#start/env'

interface JwtContent extends BaseJwtContent {
  email: string
}

const authConfig = defineConfig({
  // define the default authenticator to jwt
  default: 'jwt',
  guards: {
    web: sessionGuard({
      useRememberMeTokens: false,
      provider: sessionUserProvider({
        model: () => import('#models/user'),
      }),
    }),
    // add the jwt guard
    jwt: jwtGuard({
      // tokenName is the name of the token passed as cookie, it can be optional, by default it is 'token'
      tokenName: 'custom-name',
      // tokenExpiresIn can be a string or a number, it can be optional
      tokenExpiresIn: '1h',
      // if you want to use cookies for the authentication instead of the bearer token (optional)
      useCookies: true,
      // secret is the secret used to sign the token, it can be optional, by default it uses the application key
      // you can use a env variable like JWT_SECRET or set it directly with a string
      // if you don't have specific needs, please discard this option
      secret: env.get('JWT_SECRET'),
      provider: sessionUserProvider({
        model: () => import('#models/user'),
      }),
      // if you want to use refresh tokens, you have to set the refreshTokenUserProvider
      refreshTokenUserProvider: tokensUserProvider({
        tokens: 'refreshTokens',
        model: () => import('#models/user'),
      }),
      // content is a function that takes the user and returns the content of the token, it can be optional, by default it returns only the user id
      content: <T>(user: JwtGuardUser<T>): JwtContent => {
        return {
          userId: user.getId(),
          email: (user.getOriginal() as User).email,
        }
      },
    }),
  },
})

tokenName is the name of the jwt token passed as a cookie, it can be optional, by default it is token.

tokenName: 'custom-name'

tokenExpiresIn is the time before the jwt token expires it can be a string or a number and it can be optional.

// string
tokenExpiresIn: '1h'
// number
tokenExpiresIn: 60 * 60

You can also use cookies for the authentication instead of the bearer token by setting useCookies to true.

useCookies: true

If you just want to use jwt with the bearer token no need to set useCookies to false you can just remove it.

Refresh Tokens

To use refresh tokens, you have to set the refreshTokenUserProvider in the guard configuration, see the example above.

Create a new AdonisJS migration file and run it to create the jwt_refresh_tokens table:

import { BaseSchema } from '@adonisjs/lucid/schema'

export default class extends BaseSchema {
  protected tableName = 'jwt_refresh_tokens'

  async up() {
    this.schema.createTable(this.tableName, (table) => {
      table.increments()
      table.integer('tokenable_id').notNullable().unsigned()
      table.string('type').notNullable()
      table.string('name').nullable()
      table.string('hash', 80).notNullable()
      table.text('abilities').notNullable()
      table.timestamp('created_at', { precision: 6, useTz: true }).notNullable()
      table.timestamp('updated_at', { precision: 6, useTz: true }).notNullable()
      table.timestamp('expires_at', { precision: 6, useTz: true }).nullable()
      table.timestamp('last_used_at', { precision: 6, useTz: true }).nullable()
    })
  }

  async down() {
    this.schema.dropTable(this.tableName)
  }
}

And add the refreshTokens property to your User model:

import { column, BaseModel } from '@adonisjs/lucid/orm'
import { DbAccessTokensProvider } from '@adonisjs/auth/access_tokens'

export default class User extends BaseModel {
  @column({ isPrimary: true })
  declare id: number

  @column()
  declare username: string

  @column()
  declare email: string

  @column()
  declare password: string

  static refreshTokens = DbAccessTokensProvider.forModel(User, {
    prefix: 'rt_',
    table: 'jwt_refresh_tokens',
    type: 'jwt_refresh_token',
    tokenSecretLength: 40,
  })
}

Authentication

To make a protected route, you have to use the auth middleware with the jwt guard.

router.post('login', async ({ request, auth }) => {
  const { email, password } = request.all()
  const user = await User.verifyCredentials(email, password)

  // to generate a token
  return await auth.use('jwt').generate(user)
})

// if the jwt guard is the default guard
router.get('/', async ({ auth }) => {
  return auth.getUserOrFail()
})
.use(middleware.auth())

// if the jwt guard is not the default guard
router.get('/', async ({ auth }) => {
  return auth.use('jwt').getUserOrFail()
})
.use(middleware.auth({ guards: ['jwt'] }))

// to create a refresh token to a given user
import User from '#models/user'
const user  = auth.getUserOrFail()
const refreshToken = await User.refreshTokens.create(user)

// if you use the refresh token
router.post('jwt/refresh', async ({ auth }) => {
  // this will authenticate the user using the refresh token
  // it will delete the old refresh token and generate a new one
  const user = await auth.use('jwt').authenticateWithRefreshToken()
  const newRefreshToken = user.currentToken
  const newToken = await auth.use('jwt').generate(user)

  return response.ok({
    token: newToken,
    refreshToken: newRefreshToken,
    ...user.serialize(),
  })
})

Security

We use natively the AdonisJS application key to sign the token, so you don't have to worry about it and avoid this.