[@clerk/tanstack-react-start] Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'get') in AuthenticateContext.getCookie

[Nicolapps]

Preliminary Checks

• I have reviewed the documentation: https://clerk.com/docs

• I have searched for existing issues: https://github.com/clerk/javascript/issues

• I have not already reached out to Clerk support via email or Discord (if you have, no need to open an issue here)

• This issue is not a question, general help request, or anything other than a bug report directly related to Clerk. Please ask questions in our Discord community: https://clerk.com/discord.

Reproduction

https://github.com/Nicolapps/tanstack-start-clerk-minimal

Publishable key

pk_test_b3Blbi1hYXJkdmFyay03Ni5jbGVyay5hY2NvdW50cy5kZXYk

Description

Thanks for releasing @clerk/tanstack-react-start@0.26.0 with TanStack Start RC support! I’m trying to update a project with pre-RC TanStack Start + Clerk (@clerk/tanstack-react-start@0.24.0), but I’m getting a runtime error. I’m getting the same error when creating a brand new project with npx create-start-app.

Steps to reproduce:

• Create a project with @clerk/tanstack-react-start@0.26.0
• Set up start.ts and a <ClerkProvider> as suggested in https://github.com/clerk/javascript/blob/main/packages/tanstack-react-start/CHANGELOG.md#0260
• Start the dev server
• Make a request to http://localhost:3000 from a web browser

Expected behavior:

The home page loads

Actual behavior:

The page shows instead:

{"status":500,"unhandled":true,"message":"HTTPError"}

The dev server output shows:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'get')
    at AuthenticateContext.getCookie (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:311:38)
    ... 10 lines matching cause stack trace ...
    at async file:///Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@tanstack/start-plugin-core/dist/esm/dev-server-plugin/plugin.js:64:30 {
  cause: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'get')
      at AuthenticateContext.getCookie (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:311:38)
      at AuthenticateContext.getSuffixedCookie (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:315:17)
      at AuthenticateContext.usesSuffixedCookies (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:91:36)
      at AuthenticateContext.getSuffixedOrUnSuffixedCookie (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:319:14)
      at AuthenticateContext.initCookieValues (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:285:38)
      at new AuthenticateContext (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:82:12)
      at createAuthenticateContext (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/authenticateContext.ts:381:10)
      at async authenticateRequest (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/backend/src/tokens/request.ts:151:31)
      at async result (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@clerk/tanstack-react-start/src/server/clerkMiddleware.ts:16:26)
      at async next (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@tanstack/start-server-core/src/createStartHandler.ts:480:16)
      at async startRequestResolver (/Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@tanstack/start-server-core/src/createStartHandler.ts:267:17)
      at async file:///Users/nicolas/Documents/demo-tanstack-start-clerk-manual/node_modules/@tanstack/start-plugin-core/dist/esm/dev-server-plugin/plugin.js:64:30,
  status: 500,
  statusText: undefined,
  headers: undefined,
  data: undefined,
  body: undefined,
  unhandled: true
}

Environment

System:
    OS: macOS 15.6.1
    CPU: (16) arm64 Apple M3 Max
    Memory: 9.52 GB / 64.00 GB
    Shell: 4.0.2 - /opt/homebrew/bin/fish
  Binaries:
    Node: 22.18.0 - /Users/nicolas/Library/Caches/fnm_multishells/98197_1760549282523/bin/node
    npm: 10.9.3 - /Users/nicolas/Library/Caches/fnm_multishells/98197_1760549282523/bin/npm
    pnpm: 10.6.5 - /opt/homebrew/bin/pnpm
    bun: 1.1.34 - /opt/homebrew/bin/bun
  Browsers:
    Brave Browser: 137.1.79.118
    Chrome: 141.0.7390.107
    Firefox: 143.0.4
    Safari: 18.6
  npmPackages:
    @clerk/tanstack-react-start: ^0.26.0 => 0.26.0
    @tailwindcss/vite: ^4.0.6 => 4.1.14
    @tanstack/nitro-v2-vite-plugin: ^1.132.31 => 1.132.40
    @tanstack/react-devtools: ^0.7.0 => 0.7.6
    @tanstack/react-query: ^5.89.0 => 5.90.3
    @tanstack/react-router: ^1.132.47 => 1.132.47
    @tanstack/react-router-devtools: ^1.133.1 => 1.133.1
    @tanstack/react-router-ssr-query: ^1.133.3 => 1.133.3
    @tanstack/react-router-with-query: ^1.130.17 => 1.130.17
    @tanstack/react-start: ^1.133.2 => 1.133.2
    @tanstack/router-plugin: ^1.132.0 => 1.132.56
    @testing-library/dom: ^10.4.0 => 10.4.1
    @testing-library/react: ^16.2.0 => 16.3.0
    @types/node: ^22.10.2 => 22.18.10
    @types/react: ^19.0.8 => 19.2.2
    @types/react-dom: ^19.0.3 => 19.2.2
    @vitejs/plugin-react: ^5.0.4 => 5.0.4
    jsdom: ^27.0.0 => 27.0.0
    lucide-react: ^0.544.0 => 0.544.0
    react: ^19.0.0 => 19.2.0
    react-dom: ^19.0.0 => 19.2.0
    tailwindcss: ^4.0.6 => 4.1.14
    typescript: ^5.7.2 => 5.9.3
    vite: ^7.1.7 => 7.1.10
    vite-tsconfig-paths: ^5.1.4 => 5.1.4
    vitest: ^3.0.5 => 3.2.4
    web-vitals: ^5.1.0 => 5.1.0

[samueldrai]

Same issue here

[JoeForLoop]

same issue

[davidchalifoux]

For others running into this, a temporary fix is to pin the version of srvx: pnpm add srvx@0.8.15

[wobsoriano]

Hello! Apologies for the late reply here.

There is an upstream issue with srvx 0.8.16 that's still being investigated, and the fix for now is to pin srvx@0.8.15 version. You can compare the versions in the Clerk + TS Start quickstart with your project.

If you're on Discord, you can follow this thread as well

[GuilhermeAmado]

Same problem here and I was unable to pin srvx@0.8.15.

[wobsoriano]

Same problem here and I was unable to pin srvx@0.8.15.

How did you pin/install it? Also depending on your package manager, you can use override for example in pnpm. Try to also delete node_modules and your lockfile and reinstall. See the quickstart repo I linked above

[GuilhermeAmado]

Sorry, I meant to say that I was unable to fix it by pinning it.
I tried with npm i srvx@0.8.15 and with inserting "overrides": {"srvx": "0.8.15"} in the package.json.
It seems to have pinned the version to 0.8.15 by looking at the lock file but the error persists.

[GuilhermeAmado]

@wobsoriano
The quickstart repo you provided as an example is very simple and it doesn't cover using clerk to protect the server functions. As far as I can tell the code is to protect the front-end only.

[wobsoriano]

@wobsoriano
The quickstart repo you provided as an example is very simple and it doesn't cover using clerk to protect the server functions. As far as I can tell the code is to protect the front-end only.

Yeah it's supposed to be simple but if you try to remove the pinned srvx version there and run it, you'll get the error.

[GuilhermeAmado]

Do you have a more elaborate example?
Maybe if you try to protect some server functions the problem will reappear?

I'll try to do that as soon as I have the time.
The project I'm working on is in production and is more complex.

[wobsoriano]

No need to have a complex example to get this error appear. You can reproduce it easily just by adding clerkMiddleware() in the global middleware list of the start.ts file and running dev server (assuming you dont have a previous version of srvx pinned). Once you start the dev server, the global middleware will execute, and will throw the error.

The issue is likely how cookies are being handled in latest version of srvx.

If you're on Discord, you can go to this thread and see how they made it work (just pinning srvx@0.8.15)

[JoeForLoop]

Any solution when using Bun, as it doesn't allow overrides, and I am unable to pin srvx@0.8.15?