Clerk Local Dev Loop

Overview

Configure an efficient local development workflow with Clerk authentication, including test users, hot reload, and mock auth for unit tests.

Prerequisites

• Clerk SDK installed (clerk-install-auth completed)
• Development instance created in Clerk Dashboard
• Node.js development environment

Instructions

Step 1: Configure Development Instance

Create a separate Clerk development instance to isolate test data from production.

# .env.local — use test keys (pk_test_ / sk_test_)
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...