Is there a built in

initialSession

const in the

@ory/client

that allows me to set an empty session when creating a React.context? I created something below in the pic, but not sure if this is the best approach. I’m trying to set up a AuthContext that I can use in my other components, but want to be able to render components if there is no session available from the Ory Client, specifically for Kratos.

can't you make it

Session | undefined

?

I mean… yea I technically can, but I don’t want to because I’d rather not have an

undefined

type as an or in there and anywhere I check on the session, I have to

?

. just doesn’t feel right and could be easily fixed with an initial state IMO

it is an easy way to tell if there is a session or not how do you tell with an initial state?

id === ""

? that seems way too brittle IMO

That’s a good question, which leads me to another question that I’m still trying to figure out. What is a valid session from ory? That the session is active and/or authenticated and/or not expired?

maybe you missed this endpoint https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/reference/api#operation/revokeSession

That link redirects to

<https://www.ory.sh/docs/kratos/reference/api#operation/toSession>

and the screen is blank for me. What’s the url for the revokeSession?

I mean this is details of how you implement your application, but I would do that probably then if you have a login/logout button (for example):

<Button onClick={session ? logout : login}/>

or

<p>Your Email is: {session?.identity.traits.email ?? 'You are not logged in'}</p>

If most if not all of your app is gated behind auth, the easy way to get around this is to create layouts that will perform some kind of redirect if not authenticated. e..g.

DashboardLayout

which redirects if

session check has finished loading && !session

, but returns

children

if the session is active. If you get past this mechanism, you can say with certainty a session exists in underlying components - by either prop drilling it, or only initialising your react context for sessions at layout level (the

AuthProvider

patterns is popular for this). A custom

useSession

or

useAuth

hook is also a good candidate here. If your application is less binary and you’re sprinkling in (or removing) functionality based on auth status, there is no way to get around doing an auth check. If syntax/verbosity is an issue, I usually set a derived

isAuthenticated

variable to the context/hook as well (which is

session && session.active

), which makes your implementation less Ory-specific and lets you redefine what it means to be “authenticated” at a later time

Perfect. Thanks @User.