--- title: Signed, Sealed, Delivered | daily.dev description: Step 04 of a series building a production social-wishlist app covers implementing authentication with Clerk, JWKS-verified JWTs, and server-side user record... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Signed, Sealed, Delivered | daily.dev og:description: Step 04 of a series building a production social-wishlist app covers implementing authentication with Clerk, JWKS-verified JWTs, and server-side user record... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1N0MYnTek.png og:image:alt: Signed, Sealed, Delivered og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Signed, Sealed, Delivered **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Step 04 of a series building a production social-wishlist app covers implementing authentication with Clerk, JWKS-verified JWTs, and server-side user record creation. Key design decisions include: never letting the client create its own user record (the backend fetches the profile from Clerk server-to-server on first authenticated request), distinguishing 401 (caller's fault) from 503 (server's fault) in JWT verification, caching JWKS with a one-hour TTL instead of using PyJWT's unbounded lru_cache, storing the Clerk secret key in AWS SSM SecureString rather than plaintext env vars, and persisting the onboarding flag on the backend so it survives app reinstalls. A Terraform race condition between App Runner and SSM policy attachment is also documented and fixed with an explicit depends_on. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to Add Authentication to Your Serverless Cloud Apps](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-add-authentication-to-your-serverless-cloud-apps-m4i0tvcyu) · Serverless · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [Two Places at Once](https://daily.dev/posts/two-places-at-once-sxswrnn5f) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Beyond IAM: Temporary Cloud Access That Works Across AWS and Azure](https://daily.dev/posts/beyond-iam-temporary-cloud-access-that-works-across-aws-and-azure-bz1gxdp1l) · AWS Fundamentals · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#authentication](https://daily.dev/tags/authentication), [#jwt](https://daily.dev/tags/jwt), [#fastapi](https://daily.dev/tags/fastapi) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Signed, Sealed, Delivered","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T19:31:34.611Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T19:34:38.650Z","description":"Step 04 of a series building a production social-wishlist app covers implementing authentication with Clerk, JWKS-verified JWTs, and server-side user record...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/signed-sealed-delivered-1n0myntek","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"aws,authentication,jwt,fastapi","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Signed, Sealed, Delivered"}]} ```