Using ezauth as a Library

Embedding ezauth directly into your Go application provides the most seamless integration. It allows you to use ezauth's middleware and internal services directly within your code.

Basic Integration

Here is a complete example of how to integrate ezauth into a chi router, ensuring the session middleware is correctly configured:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "os"

    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware"
    "github.com/josuebrunel/ezauth"
    "github.com/josuebrunel/ezauth/pkg/config"
)

func main() {
    // 1. Setup Config
    os.Setenv("EZAUTH_API_KEY", "my-api-key")
    os.Setenv("EZAUTH_JWT_SECRET", "my-jwt-key")
    // ... set other necessary env vars

    cfg, err := config.LoadConfig()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to load config: %v", err)
    }

    // 2. Initialize EzAuth
    auth, err := ezauth.New(&cfg, "")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to initialize auth: %v", err)
    }

    // 3. Run migrations
    if err := auth.Migrate(); err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Failed to migrate: %v", err)
    }

    r := chi.NewRouter()
    r.Use(middleware.Logger)
    r.Use(middleware.Recoverer)

    // 4. Add session middleware (handles sessions and user loading)
    r.Use(auth.SessionMiddleware)

    // 5. Mount Auth Routes
    r.Mount("/auth", auth.Handler)

    // Public Route (Login)
    r.Get("/signin", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        w.Write([]byte("Login Page"))
    })

    // Protected Route
    r.Get("/dashboard", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        // Retrieve the authenticated user
        user, err := auth.GetSessionUser(r.Context())

        if err != nil {
            http.Redirect(w, r, "/signin", http.StatusSeeOther)
            return
        }

        w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("Welcome, %s!", user.Email)))
    })

    fmt.Println("Server starting on :3000")
    http.ListenAndServe(":3000", r)
}

Helper Functions

ezauth provides package-level helper functions for convenient access to authentication context. These can be used in your handlers or templates.

[!IMPORTANT] These functions require the appropriate middleware (SessionMiddleware, LoadUserMiddleware, or AuthMiddleware) to be mounted on the router path.

import "github.com/josuebrunel/ezauth"

func MyHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    // Check if authenticated (checks both User object and UserID in context)
    if ezauth.IsAuthenticated(r.Context()) {
        // ...
    }

    // Get User ID (works with both Session and JWT auth)
    userID, err := ezauth.GetUserID(r.Context())
    if err != nil {
        // Handle error (e.g. user not found in context)
    }

    // Get User Object (requires LoadUserMiddleware or SessionMiddleware)
    user, err := ezauth.GetUser(r.Context())
    if err != nil {
        // Handle error
    } else {
        fmt.Println("User email:", user.Email)

        // Check Role
        if user.HasRole("admin") {
            // ...
        }

        // Get Metadata (generic)
        if theme, ok := models.GetMeta[string](user, "theme"); ok {
            // ...
        }
    }
}

User Model Helpers

When you have a models.User object, you can use these helper methods:

• HasRole(role string) bool: Checks if the user has a specific role.
• GetMeta[T any](user, key) (T, bool): Retrieves a value from UserMetadata.
• SetMeta(key, value): Sets a value in UserMetadata.
• GetAppMeta[T any](user, key) (T, bool): Retrieves a value from AppMetadata.
• SetAppMeta(key, value): Sets a value in AppMetadata.

Retrieving Authenticated User

To retrieve the authenticated user from the session cookies, you must mount the session middleware.

// 1. Mount session middleware
r.Use(auth.SessionMiddleware)

// 2. Access the user in your handler
r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    user, err := auth.GetSessionUser(r.Context())
    if err != nil {
        // User is not authenticated or session expired
        return
    }
    // Access user fields
    fmt.Println(user.Email)
})

Optimizing with Middleware

The auth.SessionMiddleware already includes user loading, so GetSessionUser will be fast (context retrieval).

If you are not using SessionMiddleware but still want to pre-load the user (e.g. if you handle sessions manually), you can use LoadUserMiddleware:

```go r.Use(auth.Handler.Session.LoadAndSave) // Session only r.Use(auth.LoadUserMiddleware) // Pre-load user

r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { // This will be fast as it retrieves from context user, err := auth.GetSessionUser(r.Context()) // ... }) ```

Handling Flash Messages

Form-based handlers use flash messages for errors and success notifications. Flash messages are stored in the session and are automatically cleared after being read (one-time display).

r.Get("/login", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    // Get and clear any error flash message
    if errMsg := auth.GetErrorMessage(r.Context()); errMsg != "" {
        // Display error to user (e.g., "invalid credentials")
    }

    // Get and clear any success flash message  
    if successMsg := auth.GetSuccessMessage(r.Context()); successMsg != "" {
        // Display success to user (e.g., "password reset link sent")
    }

    // Render login page...
})

[!NOTE] Flash messages are set automatically by the form handlers (e.g., FormLogin, FormRegister) when errors occur or actions succeed. You just need to retrieve and display them in your page handlers.

CSRF Protection

When using the form-based handlers (e.g., POST /auth/login), ezauth automatically enforces Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection using filippo.io/csrf/gorilla. The protection uses your configured EZAUTH_JWT_SECRET as the key.

Note on Tokens vs Headers: This library relies entirely on modern browser Fetch Metadata headers (e.g. Sec-Fetch-Site, Origin) to enforce same-origin requests dynamically, mirroring the upcoming Go 1.25 standard library CSRF protections.

Because of this, hidden CSRF tokens in your HTML forms are completely optional and ignored during validation. However, if you are integrating with frontend frameworks or legacy systems that expect a token to be present, ezauth provides helpers to seamlessly generate dummy tokens to satisfy those requirements:

import "github.com/josuebrunel/ezauth"

// In your custom handler (ensure it's wrapped with the same CSRF middleware as ezauth)
r.Get("/my-custom-login", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    data := map[string]interface{}{
        // Generate a pre-built <input type="hidden"> field
        "csrfField": ezauth.CSRFTemplateField(r),

        // Or get the raw string if you need it for AJAX headers (X-CSRF-Token)
        "csrfToken": ezauth.CSRFToken(r), 
    }
    tmpl.Execute(w, data)
})

[!NOTE] JSON API endpoints (/auth/api/*) do not require CSRF tokens since they utilize JWT Bearer authentication instead of cookie-based sessions.

## Middlewares

ezauth comes with "plug and play" middlewares to help you secure your application. These are exposed via the EzAuth struct (e.g., auth.SessionMiddleware).

Middleware	Description	Usage
SessionMiddleware	Recommended. Manages sessions (cookies) AND loads the authenticated user into context. Use this if you want GetSessionUser to work.	r.Use(auth.SessionMiddleware)
LoginRequiredMiddleware	Restricts access to authenticated users only. Redirects to login page (browser) or returns 401 (API).	r.Use(auth.LoginRequiredMiddleware)
LoadUserMiddleware	Loads the user into context. Use this if you are handling sessions manually or want to optimize repeated user lookups.	r.Use(auth.LoadUserMiddleware)
AuthMiddleware	Protects API endpoints using JWT Bearer tokens (Authorization: Bearer <token>).	r.Use(auth.AuthMiddleware)

### Example: Protecting a Dashboard

```go // 1. Setup Session (at the router root level) r.Use(auth.SessionMiddleware)

// 2. Protect specific routes r.Group(func(r chi.Router) { r.Use(auth.LoginRequiredMiddleware)

 r.Get("/dashboard", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
     // User is guaranteed to be authenticated here
     user, _ := auth.GetSessionUser(r.Context())
     w.Write([]byte("Hello " + user.Email))
 })

}) ```

## Core Components

When you initialize ezauth, you get access to several key components through the EzAuth struct:

EzAuth Struct

The EzAuth struct is the main entry point. It contains: - Config: The loaded configuration. - Repo: The database repository. - Service: The core authentication logic. - Handler: The HTTP handler.

The Handler

The Handler (accessible via auth.Handler) handles all HTTP routing and request processing. It is built on top of chi, but it implements the http.Handler interface, so it can be used with any Go HTTP framework.

Key methods: - ServeHTTP(w, r): Standard HTTP handler method. - AuthMiddleware(next): Middleware to protect routes. It validates the JWT in the Authorization header and puts the userID in the request context.

The Service

The Service (accessible via auth.Service) contains the business logic for authentication. You can use it directly if you want to perform actions programmatically without going through HTTP.

Example of using the service directly:

// Create a user manually
user, err := auth.Service.UserCreate(ctx, &service.RequestBasicAuth{
    Email: "user@example.com",
    Password: "securepassword",
})

// Generate tokens for a user
tokens, err := auth.Service.TokenCreate(ctx, user)

Form Field Reference

When using the form-based endpoints (e.g., /auth/register, /auth/login), ezauth expects the following form fields in the POST request body (application/x-www-form-urlencoded):

Registration (/auth/register)

• email (Required)
• password (Required, min 8 chars)
• password_confirm (Required)
• first_name (Optional)
• last_name (Optional)
• locale (Optional)
• timezone (Optional)
• roles (Optional, comma-separated)
• meta_ (Optional)
  • Any field starting with meta_ will be added to the user's metadata (e.g., meta_theme=dark -> user_metadata: { "theme": "dark" }).

Login (/auth/login)

• email (Required)
• password (Required)

Password Reset Request (/auth/password-reset/request)

• email (Required)

Password Reset Confirm (/auth/password-reset/confirm)

• token (Required, usually passed via hidden input or query param)
• password (Required, the new password)

Magic Link Request (/auth/passwordless/request)

• email (Required)

Magic Link Login (/auth/passwordless/login)

• token (Required, passed as a query parameter: ?token=...)

Using an Existing Database Connection

If your application already has a *sql.DB connection, you can use NewWithDB:

auth, err := ezauth.NewWithDB(&cfg, myDBConnection, "auth")