v13

latestOpenAPI 3.0.3MITraw.githubusercontent.com2026-08-04237161688.6 KB

Users

Update a user

Update a user's attributes.

You can set the user's primary contact identifiers (email address and phone numbers) by updating the primary_email_address_id and primary_phone_number_id attributes respectively. Both IDs should correspond to verified identifications that belong to the user.

You can remove a user's username by setting the username attribute to null or the blank string "".

As of API version 2026-05-12, this endpoint no longer accepts public_metadata, private_metadata, or unsafe_metadata. Use PATCH /v1/users/{user_id}/metadata to merge updates into existing metadata, or PUT /v1/users/{user_id}/metadata to replace a metadata field entirely.

patch/users/{user_id}

Path parameters

user_idstring required

The ID of the user to update

Request body

external_idstring nullable

The ID of the user as used in your external systems or your previous authentication solution. Must be unique across your instance.

first_namestring nullable

The first name to assign to the user

last_namestring nullable

The last name to assign to the user

localestring nullable

The locale to assign to the user (e.g., "en-US", "fr-FR")

primary_email_address_idstring nullable

The ID of the email address to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user.

notify_primary_email_address_changedboolean nullable

If set to true, the user will be notified that their primary email address has changed. By default, no notification is sent.

primary_phone_number_idstring nullable

The ID of the phone number to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user.

primary_web3_wallet_idstring nullable

The ID of the web3 wallets to set as primary. It must be verified, and present on the current user.

usernamestring nullable

The username to give to the user. It must be unique across your instance.

profile_image_idstring nullable

The ID of the image to set as the user's profile image

passwordstring nullable

The plaintext password to give the user. Must be at least 8 characters long, and cannot be in any list of hacked passwords.

password_digeststring

In case you already have the password digests and not the passwords, you can use them for the newly created user via this property. The digests should be generated with one of the supported algorithms. The hashing algorithm can be specified using the password_hasher property.

password_hasherstring

The hashing algorithm that was used to generate the password digest.

The algorithms we support at the moment are bcrypt, bcrypt_sha256_django, md5, pbkdf2_sha1, pbkdf2_sha256, pbkdf2_sha256_django, pbkdf2_sha512, phpass, md5_phpass, scrypt_firebase, scrypt_werkzeug, sha256, ldap_ssha, the argon2 variants: argon2i and argon2id, sha512_symfony, the SHA-512 variant of the Symfony legacy hasher, and pbkdf2_sha512_hex, a variant of pbkdf2_sha512 that accepts hex-encoded salt and hash.

Each of the supported hashers expects the incoming digest to be in a particular format. See the Clerk docs for more information.

skip_password_checksboolean nullable

Set it to true if you're updating the user's password and want to skip any password policy settings check. This parameter can only be used when providing a password.

sign_out_of_other_sessionsboolean nullable

Set to true to sign out the user from all their active sessions once their password is updated. This parameter can only be used when providing a password.

totp_secretstring nullable

In case TOTP is configured on the instance, you can provide the secret to enable it on the specific user without the need to reset it.

backup_codesstring[]

If Backup Codes are configured on the instance, you can provide them to enable it on the specific user without the need to reset them.

delete_self_enabledboolean nullable

If true, the user can delete themselves with the Frontend API.

create_organization_enabledboolean nullable

If true, the user can create organizations with the Frontend API.

legal_accepted_atstring nullable

A custom timestamp denoting when the user accepted legal requirements, specified in RFC3339 format.

skip_legal_checksboolean nullable

When set to true all legal checks are skipped.

create_organizations_limitinteger nullable

The maximum number of organizations the user can create. 0 means unlimited.

created_atstring nullable

A custom date/time denoting when the user signed up to the application.

bypass_client_trustboolean nullable

When set to true, the user will bypass client trust checks during sign-in.

Response

Success

idstring required

object'user' required

String representing the object's type. Objects of the same type share the same value.

external_idstring nullable required

primary_email_address_idstring nullable required

primary_phone_number_idstring nullable required

primary_web3_wallet_idstring nullable required

usernamestring nullable required

first_namestring nullable required

last_namestring nullable required

localestring nullable

profile_image_urlstring

image_urlstring

has_imageboolean required

public_metadataobject required

private_metadataobject nullable

unsafe_metadataobject

password_enabledboolean required

two_factor_enabledboolean required

totp_enabledboolean required

backup_code_enabledboolean required

mfa_enabled_atinteger nullable required

Unix timestamp of when MFA was last enabled for this user. It should be noted that this field is not nullified if MFA is disabled.

mfa_disabled_atinteger nullable required

Unix timestamp of when MFA was last disabled for this user. It should be noted that this field is not nullified if MFA is enabled again.

password_last_updated_atinteger nullable

Unix timestamp of when the user's password was last updated.

last_sign_in_atinteger nullable required

Unix timestamp of last sign-in.

bannedboolean required

Flag to denote whether user is banned or not.

lockedboolean required

Flag to denote whether user is currently locked, i.e. restricted from signing in or not.

deprovisionedboolean

Flag to denote whether user has been deprovisioned and is restricted from signing in.

lockout_expires_in_secondsinteger nullable required

The number of seconds remaining until the lockout period expires for a locked user. A null value for a locked user indicates that lockout never expires.

verification_attempts_remaininginteger nullable required

The number of verification attempts remaining until the user is locked. Null if account lockout is not enabled. Note: if a user is locked explicitly via the Backend API, they may still have verification attempts remaining.

updated_atinteger required

Unix timestamp of last update.

created_atinteger required

Unix timestamp of creation.

delete_self_enabledboolean required

If enabled, user can delete themselves via FAPI.

create_organization_enabledboolean required

If enabled, user can create organizations via FAPI.

create_organizations_limitinteger nullable

The maximum number of organizations the user can create. 0 means unlimited.

last_active_atinteger nullable required

Unix timestamp of the latest session activity, with day precision.

legal_accepted_atinteger nullable required

Unix timestamp of when the user accepted the legal requirements.

bypass_client_trustboolean

When set to true, the user will bypass client trust checks during sign-in.

Example response

{
  "last_active_at": 1700690400000,
  "legal_accepted_at": 1700690400000
}