Auth and Permissions
Design authentication and authorization that remain secure as product scope expands.
Recommended approach
- Keep authentication (who the user is) and authorization (what user can do) separate.
- Centralize permission checks in policy/service layers.
- Support role-based and resource-based permissions when needed.
For many projects, Better Auth can serve as a practical base for sessions, MFA, and API-key flows.
Alternatives and when to choose them
- Hosted IdP for enterprise SSO/compliance constraints.
- Custom auth stack for unique domain/security models.
Implementation checklist
- Define permission matrix per domain action.
- Log sensitive auth events.
- Add rate limits on auth endpoints.
Common pitfalls
- Permissions enforced only in controllers without domain-level checks.
- Missing token/session revocation paths.