Adding magic links to Stytch Login

This guide shows how to enable Email Magic Links in Stytch Login, then authenticate Magic Link tokens on your backend. For broader SDK details, see the frontend SDK docs.

Configure your project in the Stytch Dashboard

Create Login and Sign-up redirect URLs on the redirect URL configuration page.
In Frontend SDK, authorize your domain and enable Email magic links → Enable the LoginOrCreate Flow.
From Project ID & API keys, copy your public_token.

Install the frontend SDKs

Install the frontend package:

npm install @stytch/react --save

Wrap your app with StytchProvider

import { createStytchClient, StytchProvider } from '@stytch/react';

const stytch = createStytchClient('PUBLIC_TOKEN');
const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById("root")!);

root.render(
  <StytchProvider stytch={stytch}>
    <App />
  </StytchProvider>,
);

Configure Stytch Login with Magic Links

import { Products, StytchLogin } from '@stytch/react';

const config = {
  emailMagicLinksOptions: {
    loginExpirationMinutes: 30,
    loginRedirectURL: 'https://example.com/authenticate',
    signupExpirationMinutes: 30,
    signupRedirectURL: 'https://example.com/authenticate',
  },
  products: [Products.emailMagicLinks],
};

export const Login = () => {
  return <StytchLogin config={config} />;
};

Customize the UI (optional)

const presentation = { 
  theme: { 'font-family': '"Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif' },
};

export const Login = () => {
  return (
    <StytchLogin
      config={config}
      presentation={presentation}
    />
  );
};

Add server-side support

Install the backend SDK:

npm install stytch --save

When a user logs in for the first time, the SDK creates a Stytch User and returns a user_id. Save it in your user store.

app.post('/users', function (req, res) {
  var stytchUserId = req.body.userId;
  // TODO: Save stytchUserId with your user record in your app's storage
  res.send(`Created user with stytchUserId: ${stytchUserId}`);
});

Handle Magic Link authentication on a route that receives the token query param:

const stytch = require('stytch');
const client = new stytch.Client({
  project_id: "PROJECT_ID",
  secret: "SECRET",
  env: stytch.envs.test
});

app.get('/authenticate', function (req, res) {
  var token = req.query.token;
  client.magicLinks.authenticate(token)
    .then(response => {
      req.session.authenticated = true;
      req.session.save(function(err) {
        console.log(err);
      });
      res.redirect('/home')
    })
    .catch(error => {
      console.log(error);
      res.send('There was an error authenticating the user.');
    });
});

If authentication is successful, create a user session and log them into your app. To keep users logged in longer, set session_duration_minutes. See the session management guide.

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