Features

Agent Sdk

Dedicated SDK for agentic workflows — agent sessions, token lifecycle, and authorization requests

Token Delegation

Issue scoped tokens an agent can use downstream without exposing user credentials

Human In The Loop

Pause agent execution and require explicit user approval before proceeding

Fga

Fine-Grained Authorization — relationship-based or attribute-based access control, not just role-based

Mcp Support

Unverified — check source_urls

Async Authorization

Non-blocking approval workflows — agent continues and gets notified when approval is granted

Clerk

Clerk is the go-to auth solution in the Next.js and React ecosystem, known for its polished prebuilt UI components and tight Vercel integration. It's popular in AI app development because it gets auth working in minutes with minimal boilerplate.

For simple agentic use cases — an AI app where a user logs in and the agent acts within that session — Clerk works well. For more complex agent scenarios involving token delegation, inter-agent authorization, or fine-grained permission models, Clerk isn't the right fit.

The AI-specific support centers on making session tokens available within AI SDK route handlers and server actions, rather than purpose-built agent authorization primitives.

Agent-specific features:

Session token access within AI SDK route handlers
Middleware integration for protecting AI endpoints
No built-in token delegation or FGA

Clerk

Best for

Limitations

Features

Frameworks

SDK Languages

Compliance

Clerk