> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.brew.new/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Clerk

> Trigger Brew automations from Clerk webhook events, user signups, organization changes, paid subscriptions, and waitlist entries.

Connect [Clerk](https://clerk.com) to Brew so user, organization, billing, and waitlist events fire automations. Send a welcome email when someone signs up, drip a dunning sequence when a subscription goes past due, kick off a workspace-onboarding flow when a new team gets created.

## What You Can Do

* **Trigger automations from Clerk events.** Kick off email flows when users sign up, orgs are created, subscriptions go past due, or waitlist entries arrive
* **Auto-sync contacts into your audience.** Every Clerk event upserts the user into Brew with `clerk_*` custom fields (`clerk_user_id`, `clerk_subscription_status`, `clerk_plan_name`, …) you can filter and segment on
* **Personalize with auth context.** Reference `firstName`, `lastName`, `planName`, `organizationName`, and other Clerk fields inside emails
* **Cover lifecycle + billing in one place.** Onboarding, dunning, win-back, and waitlist nurture all use the same Clerk connection

<Warning>
  Every marketing recipient must have opted in to hear from you. Importing or syncing contact data into Brew is not permission to email it. See [What You Can Send](/get-started/what-you-can-send).
</Warning>

## How It Works

1. Brew mints a unique webhook URL for your brand and you paste it into your Clerk Dashboard.
2. Clerk signs every webhook with your endpoint's signing secret. Brew verifies the signature via the [Standard Webhooks (Svix)](https://www.standardwebhooks.com/) spec on receipt, tampered or replayed events are rejected.
3. For each verified event Brew (a) starts every **Live** automation whose trigger matches and (b) upserts the Clerk user into your [audience](/audience/add-contacts) with `clerk_*` custom fields.

See [How event triggers work](/integrations/integrations#how-event-triggers-work) for the conceptual flow shared by every event-source integration.

## Setup

<Steps>
  <Step title="Generate your Brew webhook URL">
    In Brew, open **Integrations**, click the **Clerk** card, and click **Generate URL**. Copy the URL Brew generates for the next step.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add an endpoint in Clerk">
    Open [dashboard.clerk.com](https://dashboard.clerk.com), go to **Webhooks → + Add Endpoint**, and paste the Brew URL into the **Endpoint URL** field.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Subscribe to the events Brew supports">
    Enable the user, organization, organizationInvitation, organizationMembership, paymentAttempt, subscription, subscriptionItem, and waitlistEntry events (full list below), then click **Create**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Reveal the Signing Secret">
    On the endpoint detail page Clerk shows next, click the eye icon next to **Signing Secret** to reveal it. The value starts with `whsec_`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Paste the Signing Secret into Brew">
    Paste the `whsec_…` secret into the Brew connect form and click **Connect**. Brew verifies every webhook using the Standard Webhooks (Svix) spec.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify it's working">
    Trigger an event in Clerk (e.g. sign up a test user, or send a test invite). Within a few seconds it should appear in the **Manage → Recent events** panel of the Clerk integration page in Brew. If it doesn't, recheck the signing secret in step 5.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Brew only listens for Clerk events. It can't modify users, create organizations, or charge subscriptions.
</Note>

## Triggering Automations

Once connected, every Clerk event below is provisioned automatically and available as a trigger in the [automation builder](/create-emails/automations). The **Manage** tab on the Clerk integration page is a read-only catalogue of the events Brew is listening for plus a live **Recent events** stream, no per-event enable step. Whether an event actually fires emails is controlled by whether the bound automation is **Live** (not Draft).

### Supported Events

Brew supports the following 13 Clerk events as automation triggers:

**User**

* `user.created`

**Organization**

* `organization.created`
* `organizationInvitation.created`
* `organizationInvitation.accepted`
* `organizationInvitation.revoked`
* `organizationMembership.created`

**Billing**

* `paymentAttempt.created`
* `subscription.created`
* `subscriptionItem.freeTrialEnding`
* `subscriptionItem.pastDue`
* `subscriptionItem.canceled`
* `subscriptionItem.abandoned`

**Waitlist**

* `waitlistEntry.created`

<Tip>
  In chat, say *"Send this email when someone signs up via Clerk"* and Brew will scaffold the automation with `user.created` pre-selected.
</Tip>

## Common Patterns

| Goal                                                | Clerk event                                                           |
| --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Welcome new user                                    | `user.created`                                                        |
| Workspace-setup checklist for new orgs              | `organization.created`                                                |
| Branded "you have been invited" email               | `organizationInvitation.created`                                      |
| Welcome new teammate                                | `organizationInvitation.accepted` or `organizationMembership.created` |
| Pre-charge heads-up to reduce chargebacks           | `paymentAttempt.created`                                              |
| Trial-ending reminder                               | `subscriptionItem.freeTrialEnding`                                    |
| Dunning sequence on missed payment                  | `subscriptionItem.pastDue`                                            |
| Exit survey / win-back drip on cancel               | `subscriptionItem.canceled`                                           |
| Last-chance offer when a trial ends without payment | `subscriptionItem.abandoned`                                          |
| "You're on the list" + nurture drip                 | `waitlistEntry.created`                                               |

## Personalization

These resolve as [merge tags](/create-emails/merge-tags) in the email body, subject line, and preview text. Use a fallback wherever an empty value would read badly, like `{{ firstName | there }}`.

Use Clerk payload fields anywhere in your emails. Common variables:

| Variable                                                                        | Example                                                                   |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `{{ firstName }}` (every event)                                                 | `Jane`                                                                    |
| `{{ lastName }}` (every event)                                                  | `Doe`                                                                     |
| `{{ planName }}` (`subscription.created`, `subscriptionItem.*`)                 | `Pro Plan`                                                                |
| `{{ planAmount }}` (`subscription.created`, `subscriptionItem.*`)               | `2000` (Clerk sends amounts in the smallest currency unit, cents for USD) |
| `{{ organizationName }}` (`organizationMembership.created`)                     | `Acme Corp`                                                               |
| `{{ name }}` (`organization.created`)                                           | `Acme Corp`                                                               |
| `{{ roleName }}` (`organizationMembership.created`, `organizationInvitation.*`) | `Member`                                                                  |
| `{{ grandTotalFormatted }}` (`paymentAttempt.created`)                          | `$22.00` (already pre-formatted by Clerk)                                 |

<Note>
  Only `firstName`, `lastName`, and `createdAt` are available on **every** Clerk event. The rest are event-specific: a tag referenced on an event that doesn't carry it renders its fallback (`{{ planName | your plan }}`), so always give event-specific tags one.
</Note>

<Tip>
  Prefer `grandTotalFormatted` over `planAmount` in user-facing copy. It ships pre-formatted with the right currency symbol and decimals.
</Tip>

<Note>
  Clerk organization events (like `organization.created`) don't carry a customer email. Brew emits a synthetic placeholder so you can still route the event internally, and the event carries `name`, `slug`, `membersCount`, and `maxAllowedMemberships` for the org itself. To email a real person about a new workspace, trigger on `organizationMembership.created` instead: it carries the member's own email alongside `organizationName` and `roleName`.
</Note>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="An event arrived but no automation fired" icon="circle-question">
    Open the canvas and confirm at least one automation bound to this event is set to **Live** (not Draft). The Brew integration's **Manage → Recent events** panel shows every webhook Clerk has delivered, if the event isn't there, the webhook isn't arriving (check Clerk's endpoint settings and re-paste the signing secret). If the event is there but no email sent, the only remaining gate is `automation.published`.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Clerk shows 401 on every delivery" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    The signing secret in Brew doesn't match the one in Clerk's Dashboard, usually because it was rotated in one place but not the other. Reveal the current secret on the Clerk endpoint detail page and re-run setup step 5 in Brew.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I want to test before going live" icon="flask">
    Create a Draft automation, run a test send from the email editor, and only publish the automation to **Live** once you're happy. The **Manage → Recent events** panel shows every webhook Clerk has delivered in the last 24 hours so you can verify the trigger is firing the way you expect.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Requirements

* A Clerk account on any paid plan (free instances support webhooks too)
* Admin access to your Clerk Dashboard so you can add a Webhook endpoint and reveal the Signing Secret

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