From 39d2e530a71667ded18ae85a09388a49d3e28101 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Ishaan (OpenClaw)" <ishaan@openclaw.local>
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 22:56:07 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] frontend: disable Clerk only when publishable key is absent

---
 frontend/src/auth/clerk.tsx | 14 ++++----------
 frontend/src/proxy.ts       | 11 +----------
 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

diff --git a/frontend/src/auth/clerk.tsx b/frontend/src/auth/clerk.tsx
index d5ee1dca..5dfcd62d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/auth/clerk.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/auth/clerk.tsx
@@ -16,16 +16,10 @@ import {
 } from "@clerk/nextjs";
 
 export function isClerkEnabled(): boolean {
-  const key = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY;
-  if (!key) return false;
-
-  // Clerk validates publishable key contents at runtime; use a conservative heuristic.
-  const m = /^pk_(test|live)_([A-Za-z0-9]+)$/.exec(key);
-  if (!m) return false;
-  const body = m[2];
-  if (body.length < 16) return false;
-  if (/^0+$/.test(body)) return false;
-  return true;
+  // Invariant: Clerk is disabled ONLY when the publishable key is absent.
+  // If a key is present, we assume Clerk is intended to be enabled and we let
+  // Clerk fail fast if the key is invalid/misconfigured.
+  return Boolean(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY);
 }
 
 export function SignedIn(props: { children: ReactNode }) {
diff --git a/frontend/src/proxy.ts b/frontend/src/proxy.ts
index 41a0eb80..75b30866 100644
--- a/frontend/src/proxy.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/proxy.ts
@@ -1,16 +1,7 @@
 import { NextResponse } from "next/server";
 import { clerkMiddleware } from "@clerk/nextjs/server";
 
-const isClerkEnabled = () => {
-  const key = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY;
-  if (!key) return false;
-  const m = /^pk_(test|live)_([A-Za-z0-9]+)$/.exec(key);
-  if (!m) return false;
-  const body = m[2];
-  if (body.length < 16) return false;
-  if (/^0+$/.test(body)) return false;
-  return true;
-};
+const isClerkEnabled = () => Boolean(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY);
 
 export default isClerkEnabled() ? clerkMiddleware() : () => NextResponse.next();