Fix post-login redirect when the session cookie is off-origin

Signing in showed the "Welcome back!" toast but never left /login. The
session cookie was host-only on the API subdomain, so the Next middleware
guard on the site origin saw no cookie and bounced /dashboard straight
back to /login?redirect=/dashboard.

- Add AUTH_COOKIE_DOMAIN, wiring Better Auth's crossSubDomainCookies so
  the cookie also reaches the site origin. Unset in dev, where localhost
  is single-host and must stay host-only.
- Navigate after authentication with a full page load, via a shared
  authRedirect helper: only a top-level request carries the httpOnly
  cookie. Used by the login, register, magic-link and Google flows.
- Show "Redirecting..." on the login and register pages and keep the
  submit button disabled until the browser replaces the page, instead of
  re-enabling it mid-navigation.
- Guard against a redirect loop with a sessionStorage marker. A React ref
  cannot do this: the full page load resets component state. If the
  destination bounces back, explain it rather than navigating again.
- Middleware: accept any *.session_token cookie so a cookiePrefix change
  cannot lock everyone out, and preserve the destination's query string.
- Trust any loopback port in dev, so reaching the dev server through a
  forwarded port does not fail Better Auth's CSRF origin check.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Michilis
2026-07-29 20:45:05 +00:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6
parent 733d2459df
commit dafa3711f8
12 changed files with 243 additions and 26 deletions
+5 -2
View File
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ Key settings (see `backend/.env.example` for the full list):
- **DB**: `DB_TYPE=sqlite|postgres`, `DATABASE_URL=./data/spanglish.db` (or Postgres URL)
- **Auth**: `BETTER_AUTH_SECRET` (required in production, 32+ chars), `BETTER_AUTH_URL` (public site origin; falls back to `FRONTEND_URL`), optional `GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID`/`GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET`
- **Auth cookie scope**: `AUTH_COOKIE_DOMAIN` (optional, e.g. `.spanglishcommunity.com`) — set it only when the API is served from a different host than the site. The session cookie is host-only by default, so a cookie issued by `api.example.com` is invisible to the frontend's Next middleware on `example.com` and every `/dashboard`/`/admin` visit bounces back to `/login`. Leave empty in development.
- **URLs/ports**: `PORT`, `API_URL`, `FRONTEND_URL`
- **Email**: `EMAIL_PROVIDER` (`console|smtp|resend`) and corresponding credentials
- **Payments (optional)**: LNbits (Lightning) configuration for the automatic provider. Manual providers (TPago link, bank transfer, card, cash) need no API keys — the TPago pay link is configured and sent via an email template.
@@ -124,8 +125,10 @@ Key settings (see `frontend/.env.example`):
- **Server port**: `PORT=3002`
- **API base URL**: `NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL` (optional)
- Leave empty to use same-origin `/api` (recommended when running behind nginx)
- In local dev, Next.js rewrites `/api/*` and `/uploads/*` to the backend
- Leave empty to use same-origin `/api` (recommended when running behind nginx). Requests become relative paths, so nginx maps them to the backend port in production and the Next.js rewrites do it in dev — the browser never needs to know the port.
- Inlined at build time: changing it requires a rebuild, not just a restart.
- Pointing it at a separate API host (e.g. `https://api.example.com`) puts the session cookie on that host, where the Next middleware guarding `/admin` and `/dashboard` cannot read it. If you do that, set `AUTH_COOKIE_DOMAIN` on the backend as well.
- **Server-side API hosts**: `PHOTO_API_URL` (server-rendered `/photos` pages and the sitemap) and `BACKEND_URL` — server components cannot use relative URLs, so these are needed even when `NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL` is empty. In production point them at loopback (`http://127.0.0.1:3020` / `http://127.0.0.1:3018`).
- **Social links (optional)**: `NEXT_PUBLIC_WHATSAPP`, `NEXT_PUBLIC_INSTAGRAM`, etc.
## Database