{
  "id": 6157105,
  "title": "NextAuth / Auth.js Database Schema Explained",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/07/nextauth-auth-js-database-schema-explained",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-07T18:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/not_varunkv/nextauth-authjs-database-schema-explained-13d2"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "NextAuth, now known as Auth.js, generates four database tables: users, accounts, sessions, and verification_tokens. These tables have relationships where users can have multiple accounts (like Google or GitHub) and multiple sessions (from different devices or browsers). Verification tokens are temporary and removed automatically. To enhance the system, consider adding a role column to the users table for role-based access control, or a phone_number column for SMS authentication. Production users should have their access_token and refresh_token encrypted, as NextAuth does not do this by default. The verification_tokens table, which self-cleans old tokens, should not be modified. Lastly, avoid adding indexes to the provider_account_id column unless necessary, as it's already unique.",
  "summary": "The short version NextAuth (now Auth.js) creates 4 tables in your database: users , accounts , sessions , and verification_tokens . The users and accounts tables have a one-to-one relationship via accounts.user_id . Sessions link to users via sessions.user_id . Verification tokens are short-lived and self-cleaning. The 4 tables users Column Type What it means id text / UUID Primary key. Generated…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}