name: Clerk Vocabulary
description: Operational and capability vocabulary for the Clerk identity, user-management, and B2B SaaS auth platform.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/clerk-com/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/clerk-com-vocabulary.yml
created: '2026-05-22'
modified: '2026-05-22'
provider: Clerk
type: Vocabulary

dimensions:
  - name: Identity Subjects
    description: Who or what is being authenticated.
    terms:
      - name: User
        description: A human end-user of a Clerk-protected application.
      - name: Machine
        description: A non-human actor (service, agent, integration) that authenticates via M2M tokens or API keys.
      - name: Organization
        description: A multi-tenant boundary representing a workspace, company, or team in B2B SaaS.
      - name: Actor
        description: An impersonator / staff principal acting on behalf of an end user via Actor Tokens.
      - name: Agent
        description: An autonomous LLM-driven principal authenticated via Clerk's Agent Tasks and AgentPass surface.

  - name: Credential Types
    description: Forms of credential Clerk issues, accepts, or verifies.
    terms:
      - name: Password
      - name: Magic Link
      - name: One-Time Code
      - name: SMS Code
      - name: Email Code
      - name: TOTP
      - name: Backup Code
      - name: Passkey
        description: WebAuthn / FIDO2 credential.
      - name: Social SSO
        description: Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, etc.
      - name: SAML Assertion
      - name: API Key
        description: Long-lived `sk_` or `pk_` credential for backend or machine identity.
      - name: M2M Token
        description: Short-lived JWT minted for service-to-service calls.
      - name: Session Token
        description: Short-lived JWT representing an authenticated browser/mobile session.
      - name: Sign-In Token
        description: Single-use token bypassing credential verification (used for migrations or programmatic sign-in).
      - name: Actor Token
        description: Token used to impersonate a user for support/staff workflows.

  - name: Operational Surfaces
    description: Top-level functional areas of the Clerk platform.
    terms:
      - name: Authentication
      - name: User Management
      - name: Session Management
      - name: Organization Management
      - name: Role-Based Access Control
      - name: Permissions
      - name: Custom Roles
      - name: SCIM Directory Sync
      - name: Enterprise SSO
      - name: Waitlist
      - name: Billing
        description: Subscription, plan, checkout, payment-method, statement, and payment-attempt resources.
      - name: Webhooks
      - name: Application Logs

  - name: Application Lifecycle Statuses
    terms:
      - name: active
      - name: inactive
      - name: pending
      - name: accepted
      - name: revoked
      - name: expired
      - name: banned
      - name: locked
      - name: abandoned
      - name: completed

  - name: ID Prefix Convention
    description: Clerk identifies every resource by a typed string prefix.
    terms:
      - name: user_
      - name: sess_
      - name: org_
      - name: orgmem_
      - name: orginv_
      - name: client_
      - name: ins_
      - name: idn_
      - name: jwk_
      - name: jwt_
      - name: saml_
      - name: ent_
      - name: m2m_
      - name: ak_
      - name: api_key_

  - name: Compliance & Trust
    terms:
      - name: SOC2
      - name: HIPAA
      - name: GDPR
      - name: CCPA
      - name: 99.99% Uptime SLA
      - name: Bot Detection
      - name: Fraud Detection

  - name: Pricing Dimensions
    description: Metering and pricing axes used by Clerk's commercial offering.
    terms:
      - name: Monthly Retained User
        abbreviation: MRU
      - name: Monthly Retained Organization
        abbreviation: MRO
      - name: Billing Volume Percentage
      - name: API Key Creation
      - name: Dashboard Seat

  - name: Integration Targets
    terms:
      - name: Next.js
      - name: React
      - name: Expo
      - name: TanStack React Start
      - name: React Router
      - name: Remix
      - name: Astro
      - name: Vue
      - name: Nuxt
      - name: Chrome Extension
      - name: iOS
      - name: Android
      - name: Flutter
      - name: Go
      - name: Python
      - name: Ruby on Rails
      - name: Java / Spring Boot
      - name: PHP
      - name: C# / .NET
      - name: Express
      - name: Fastify
      - name: Supabase
      - name: Convex
      - name: Hasura
      - name: Vercel
      - name: Stripe