Stop Building Auth From Scratch in Next.js (2026 Guide)

I built auth from scratch five times. Each time: 3-5 days. Each time I swore never again.

The 60-line solution with Auth.js v5:

import NextAuth from "next-auth";
import { PrismaAdapter } from "@auth/prisma-adapter";
import Google from "next-auth/providers/google";
import GitHub from "next-auth/providers/github";
import Credentials from "next-auth/providers/credentials";
import { db } from "@/lib/db";

export const { handlers, signIn, signOut, auth } = NextAuth({
  adapter: PrismaAdapter(db),
  session: { strategy: "jwt" },
  pages: { signIn: "/login" },
  providers: [
    Google({ clientId: process.env.AUTH_GOOGLE_ID, clientSecret: process.env.AUTH_GOOGLE_SECRET }),
    GitHub({ clientId: process.env.AUTH_GITHUB_ID, clientSecret: process.env.AUTH_GITHUB_SECRET }),
    Credentials({
      credentials: { email: { type: "email" }, password: { type: "password" } },
      async authorize(creds) {
        if (!creds?.email || !creds?.password) return null;
        const user = await db.user.findUnique({ where: { email: creds.email as string } });
        if (!user?.password) return null;
        if (creds.password !== user.password) return null;
        return { id: user.id, email: user.email, name: user.name };
      },
    }),
  ],
  callbacks: {
    async jwt({ token }) {
      if (!token.sub) return token;
      const user = await db.user.findUnique({ where: { id: token.sub }, select: { role: true } });
      if (user) token.role = user.role;
      return token;
    },
    async session({ token, session }) {
      if (token.sub) { session.user.id = token.sub; session.user.role = token.role as string; }
      return session;
    },
  },
});

Route handler (2 lines):

import { handlers } from "@/lib/auth";
export const { GET, POST } = handlers;

Protect any page (2 lines):

const session = await auth();
if (!session?.user) redirect("/login");

Google + GitHub + email/password. JWT sessions. Role-based access. Done.

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