Anonymous

Let users try your app without credentials, then link to a real account later.

convex-auth can create an authenticated guest session with no email, password, or OAuth provider. The user gets a real session and can be upgraded to a permanent account at any point.

Enable

// convex/auth.ts
import { components } from "./_generated/api";
import { convexAuth } from "@vortex-api/convex-auth/convex";

export const auth = convexAuth({
  component: components.convexAuth,
  anonymous: {
    emailDomain: "guest.yourapp.com",
    generateName: () => `Guest ${Math.random().toString(36).slice(2, 10)}`,
    onLinkAccount: async ({ anonymousUser, newUser }, ctx) => {
      // migrate domain data from the anonymous user to the linked user
    },
  },
});

Sign in anonymously

import { authClient } from "@vortex-api/convex-auth/react";

const result = await authClient.signIn.anonymous();

The user is now signed in and result.data.user.isAnonymous is true.

Link to a permanent account

const result = await authClient.linkAccount({
  email: "shlomo@example.com",
  password: "hunter2!",
  name: "Shlomo",
});

linkAccount requires an active anonymous session. It creates an email/password account for the same user, flips isAnonymous to false, mints a new session, and calls onLinkAccount if configured.

Security

• Anonymous users are first-class users in the users table with isAnonymous: true.
• Synthetic emails are random and unique to prevent collisions.
• linkAccount rejects the request if the target email already belongs to another user.