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To authenticate a NestJS API, validate a user’s credentials, establish an identity for the request, and use guards to prevent unauthenticated requests from reaching protected handlers. For a choose-your-own-adventure API, that can secure endpoints such as a player profile or story editor—but authentication alone does not decide whether a user owns a story or may change it.
First choose one implementation path that fits the project’s NestJS version: the official Passport recipe or the newer @nestjs/authentication guide. Their APIs differ, so do not combine code from both without checking compatibility. The original series’ dependency versions and route design are not specified here; treat the examples below as a design and flow, not a drop-in patch.
Choose the authentication approach before writing code
NestJS documents two distinct approaches. The Passport recipe uses @nestjs/passport with strategies such as local username/password validation and JWT bearer-token validation. The current authentication guide documents @nestjs/authentication, with application-owned user loading, route policy, persistence interfaces, and multiple authentication providers. Follow the package family already tested by the project, or assess the current guide and its APIs directly for a new project.
Do not install packages or copy a code sample until you have confirmed the NestJS version and the matching package documentation. The series’ original source and lockfile are not identified, so no specific dependency versions can be safely prescribed. See the NestJS Passport recipe and NestJS authentication guide.
#1 Best Overall
Decide whether clients need sessions or bearer tokens
Authentication can use a server-side session sent through a cookie or a token sent by the client as a bearer credential. Neither is automatically the right choice for every API; select based on how clients work and what the application can operate reliably.
| Consideration | Server-side session | Bearer JWT |
|---|---|---|
| Where authenticated state lives | Server-side session store | Claims in a signed token; the server validates the token |
| How the client sends credentials | Cookie | Bearer token, commonly in the Authorization header |
| Sign-out and revocation | End or invalidate the server-side session | Plan how to handle token expiry, refresh, and revocation; a signed token is not automatically invalidated just because a user signs out |
| Operational needs | Operate and persist session state | Protect signing keys and define token validation and refresh policy |
The current NestJS authentication guide documents both sessions and bearer tokens, including access and refresh tokens. Its mobile example uses a short-lived access token and a longer-lived refresh token; that is an example pattern, not a requirement for every client.
Trace the Passport login and protected-request flow
In the documented Passport pattern, a local strategy validates submitted credentials using application service logic. A login route guarded by that strategy receives the authenticated user on the request; the application can then issue a JWT. On a later request, a JWT strategy extracts the bearer token from the Authorization header, verifies it, and makes the validated user information available to the handler. A JWT guard protects routes that require an authenticated caller.
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- Validate login credentials. A local strategy delegates username and password checking to application logic. Look up the account and verify the supplied password against its password hash.
- Issue a token after successful login. The login handler or service can sign a JWT for the authenticated user. Define the claims and lifetime as part of the application’s token policy.
- Send the token on a protected request. The client supplies it as a bearer credential in the
Authorizationheader. - Verify before the handler runs. The JWT strategy validates the token and exposes the resulting identity to downstream request handling. A JWT guard rejects requests that do not satisfy the strategy.
This is a framework flow, not a claim that the adventure API already has a login or profile route. The official Passport recipe demonstrates the strategy arrangement.
Rank #3
Use guards to decide whether a route may run
A NestJS guard is an injectable class that implements CanActivate. It can inspect the ExecutionContext and decide whether a request proceeds. Guards run after middleware and before interceptors or pipes, giving them access to route-handler context for an access decision. Middleware may parse or attach request data; a guard answers whether this particular route may be reached. See the NestJS Guards guide.
With route-level guards, apply the selected guard consistently to every endpoint that requires sign-in. If using a global guard, make public routes deliberate—for example, login or a health check—and explicitly mark them public through the approach chosen by the application.
Make token validation policy explicit
A JWT’s presence is not proof of identity. The server must verify its signature and expiration, then validate issuer and audience when those claims are configured. Define the signing algorithm, expected claims, token lifetime, and refresh behavior rather than treating “JWT enabled” as a complete security policy.
The current @nestjs/authentication guide describes checking the signature and exp, iss, and aud when configured. Its options reference gives a 15-minute default access-token lifetime and a 30-day refresh-token lifetime; those are defaults for that package, not universal recommendations. The guide also warns that its lifetimes use milliseconds or duration strings, while numeric lifetimes in @nestjs/jwt use seconds. Prefer readable duration strings such as '15m' where supported, and confirm the units for the package in use. Details are in the authentication guide.
Best Value
Protect passwords and signing keys
Store password hashes, not plaintext passwords
Use a purpose-built password-hashing scheme and verify a submitted password against the stored hash. Do not copy a tutorial’s direct comparison of a submitted password with a database password field into production code. The current NestJS hashing guide describes a PasswordHasher implementation based on scrypt, using a random salt and constant-time checking. Its documented parameters are N=217, r=8, and p=1, with approximately 128 MiB of memory per hash; these figures are the guide’s stated configuration, not a benchmark of this API. See NestJS encryption and hashing.
Return a generic authentication failure rather than revealing whether an account name exists or its password was wrong. That avoids making login responses a source of account-enumeration information.
Keep signing secrets out of source control
Never commit a real signing key or use a tutorial placeholder as one. NestJS recommends protecting production keys with measures such as a secrets vault, environment variable, or configuration service. Restrict access to the chosen secret source and ensure the deployed application receives the intended key.
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Separate sign-in from story permissions
A guard that confirms a caller is signed in does not establish that they may edit a particular story, choice, or account. Authentication establishes identity; authorization checks whether that identity has the required role, permission, or ownership relationship. Protect routes for sign-in first, then apply the project’s resource-specific policy where a handler changes or reads user-controlled data.
Plan public and protected routes deliberately
For a choose-your-own-adventure API, decide endpoint by endpoint whether a visitor can read a story, whether sign-in is needed to save progress, and whether only an owner or authorized role can edit a story. Those are product rules, not defaults supplied by JWT or Passport.
Quick Recap
- List routes that must work without credentials, such as login and any intentionally public story-reading or health-check endpoint.
- List routes that require an authenticated identity, such as saving a player’s progress if the product makes it account-specific.
- For edits or account data, specify the ownership, role, or permission check in addition to authentication.
- If a global guard is used, explicitly allow the intended public routes; if guards are attached per route, apply them consistently to protected endpoints.
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