Getting StartedReact Native

React Native & Node.js Quickstart

This is a quickstart guide to help you integrate Descope with your React Native & Node.js application. Follow the steps below to get started.

Include the Descope React Native Package

Incorporate the Descope React Native SDK as a package. Run the following command:

Terminal
npm i --save @descope/react-native-sdk
Terminal
yarn add @descope/react-native-sdk
Terminal
pnpm add @descope/react-native-sdk
Terminal
bun i @descope/react-native-sdk

Import the React Native SDK

Proceed to import the Descope React Native package.

App.js
import { useCallback } from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Button } from 'react-native';
import { AuthProvider, useFlow, useDescope, useSession } from '@descope/react-native-sdk' // <-- Import the Descope React Native SDK

export default function App() {
	// ...
}

Initialize Descope with a Custom Project ID

Wrap your app with the Auth Provider and pass in the Descope Project ID (found on your Descope project page). This is needed to activate the SDK.

Note

Optionally, add the baseUrl parameter if using a custom domain in your Descope project (ex: https://auth.company.com).

App.js
export default function App() {
  return (
    <AuthProvider projectId="__ProjectID__"> {/* <-- Add your Descope Project ID */}
	  {/* ... */}
    </AuthProvider>
  );
}

Define and Host Your Flow

Your Descope console provides customizable, predefined authentication flows which are hosted for you. You can also host the flow yourself. You'll use the url of the hosted flow later in your code.

App.js
export default function App() {
  const flow = useFlow()

  const startFlow = async () => {
    try {
      const resp = await flow.start('https://auth.descope.io/login/__ProjectID__', '<URL_FOR_APP_LINK>')
      await manageSession(resp.data)
    } catch (e) {
      // handle errors
    }
  }

  return (
    <AuthProvider projectId="__ProjectID__">
	  {/* ... */}
    </AuthProvider>
  );
}

For Android (iOS works with just a flow url), follow the instructions in our README to establish App Links, create an activity, and handle token exchange.

Launch Your Flow

Use the flow 'start' function to initiate authentication with a custom flow (URL from step 6). For Android, add the deep link (URL from step 7).

Note

If you need to support Magic Link redirects, follow the steps in our README.

Leverage React Native SDK's Hooks and Session Management Functions

Descope provides many different hooks to check if the user is authenticated, session is loading etc. You can use these to customize the user experience:

  • useSession - This is used for implementing loading screens while sessions are being established (check session), getting user information (session.user.name), etc.
  • useDescope - Exposes the Descope SDK to your app for additional customization (e.g., descope.logout()).
  • useFlow - Used for handling flow related events (e.g., flow.start()).

For more specifics on implementing Session Management, check out our Mobile Session Validation page.

For backend Session Validation, continue reading!

App.js
export default function App() {
  const flow = useFlow()

  const { session, clearSession, manageSession } = useSession()
  const { logout } = useDescope()

  const handleLogout = useCallback(() => {
    logout()
  }, [logout])

  const startFlow = async () => {
    try {
      const resp = await flow.start('https://auth.descope.io/login/__ProjectID__', '<URL_FOR_APP_LINK>')
      await manageSession(resp.data)
    } catch (e) {
      // handle errors
    }
  }

  const exampleFetch = async () => {
    const res = await fetch('/path/to/server/api', {
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${session.sessionJwt}`,
      },
    })
  }

  return (
    <AuthProvider projectId="__ProjectID__">
	  {session ? (
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text>Welcome! {session.user.name}</Text>
          <Button onPress={handleLogout} title="Logout" />
        </View>
     ) : (
        <View style={styles.container}>
          <Text>Welcome!</Text>
          <Button onPress={startFlow} title="Start Flow" />
        </View>
     )}
    </AuthProvider>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

At this point, you're done with the frontend. If you would like to also handle Session Management in your backend, keep on reading!

Install Backend SDK

Install the SDK with the following command:

Terminal
npm i --save @descope/node-sdk
Terminal
yarn add @descope/node-sdk
Terminal
pnpm add @descope/node-sdk
Terminal
bun i @descope/node-sdk

Import and Setup Backend SDK

You'll need import and setup all of the packages from the SDK.

If you're using a custom domain with your Descope project, make sure to include baseUrl in the parameters (e.g. {baseUrl : 'https://api.descope.com'}) when you initialize DescopeClient.

index.js
import DescopeClient from '@descope/node-sdk';

try {
    const descopeClient = DescopeClient({ projectId: '__ProjectID__' });
} catch (error) {
    console.log("failed to initialize: " + error)
}

Implement Session Validation

The frontend SDK will store the session token in either a cookie or your browser's local storage. If using a cookie, the token will be sent to your app server automatically with every request.

You will need to then fetch the session token from the Authorization header of each request, and use the SDK to validate the token.

Note

You can optionally validate the aud claim by passing an audience parameter. This ensures the token was issued for your specific application and prevents token reuse across different applications. The audience parameter accepts either a string or an array of strings.

index.js
// Fetch session token from HTTP Authorization Header
const sessionToken = "xxxx";

try {
  // Basic validation without audience checking
  const authInfo = await descopeClient.validateSession(sessionToken);
  
  // Or validate with a single audience (string)
  const authInfoWithAudience = await descopeClient.validateSession(sessionToken, {
    audience: '__ProjectID__'
  });
  
  // Or validate with multiple audiences (array)
  const authInfoWithMultipleAudiences = await descopeClient.validateSession(sessionToken, {
    audience: ['__ProjectID__', 'my-custom-audience']
  });
  
  console.log("Successfully validated user session:");
  console.log(authInfo);
} catch (error) {
  console.log("Could not validate user session " + error);
}

Congratulations

Now that you've got the authentication down, go focus on building out the rest of your app!

Checkpoint

Your application is now integrated with Descope. Please test with sign-up or sign-in use case.

Need help?

Customize

Now that you have the end-to-end application working, you can choose to configure and personalize many different areas of Descope, including your brand, style, custom user authentication journeys, etc. We recommend starting with customizing your user-facing screens, such as signup and login.

Customize

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