Email Recovery is a legacy flow, now superseded by Email Auth, which can used to implement recovery flows and more.

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Overview

This process involves using the following Turnkey SDK packages:

  1. @turnkey/sdk-server: Used on the server-side to leverage the parent organization’s public/private API key pair for initializing the email recovery.
  2. @turnkey/sdk-browser: Used on the client-side to complete the email recovery process by adding an end-user passkey.
  3. @turnkey/sdk-react: Used for Next.js applications to initialize the Turnkey SDK.

The email recovery process is split between client-side and server-side operations to prevent exposing the parent organization’s private API key.

For an in-depth understanding of the email recovery process at Turnkey, refer to our docs on email recovery.

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Implementation

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Initialize the Turnkey SDKs

Begin by initializing the Turnkey SDK with your organization ID and the Turnkey API’s base URL on the client-side.

Wrap the root layout of your application with the TurnkeyProvider providing the required configuration options. This allows you to use the Turnkey client throughout your app via the useTurnkey() hook.

app/layout.tsx
import { TurnkeyProvider } from "@turnkey/sdk-react";

export default function RootLayout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        <TurnkeyProvider
          config={{
            rpId: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_TURNKEY_RP_ID,
            apiBaseUrl: "https://api.turnkey.com",
            defaultOrganizationId:
              process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
          }}
        >
          {children}
        </TurnkeyProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

The NEXT_PUBLIC_ORGANIZATION_ID should be set to the parent organization ID which can be found in the Turnkey Dashboard.

The NEXT_PUBLIC_TURNKEY_RP_ID should be set to your application’s desired relying party ID; this is typically your domain, or localhost if developing locally. See this page for more details.

​
Server-side Initialization

Initialize the Turnkey SDK on the server-side using the @turnkey/sdk-server package. This allows you to use the parent organization’s public/private API key pair to initialize the email recovery process securely.

For Next.js, add the "use server" directive at the top of the file where you’re initializing the Turnkey server client. This will ensure that the function is executed on the server-side and will have access to the server-side environment variables e.g. your parent organization’s public/private API key pair. For more information on Next.js server actions, see the Next.js documentation on Server Actions and Mutations.

app/actions.ts
"use server";

import { Turnkey } from "@turnkey/sdk-server";

// Initialize the Turnkey Server Client on the server-side
const turnkeyServer = new Turnkey({
  apiBaseUrl: "https://api.turnkey.com",
  apiPrivateKey: process.env.TURNKEY_API_PRIVATE_KEY,
  apiPublicKey: process.env.TURNKEY_API_PUBLIC_KEY,
  defaultOrganizationId: process.env.TURNKEY_ORGANIZATION_ID,
}).apiClient();

​
Initialize the Iframe Client

Next, we’ll initialize the iframeClient which will create a secure iframe within your application. The iframeClient must be initialized before beginning the user recovery process, as we’ll need the iframe’s public key as a parameter for the initEmailRecovery method.

We add the "use client" directive to the Recovery component to as react hooks can only be used client-side.

app/recovery.tsx
"use client";

import { useTurnkey } from "@turnkey/sdk-react";

export default function Recovery() {
  const { authIframeClient } = useTurnkey();

  return <div>{/* ... rest of the code */}</div>;
}

​
Create a Recovery Function

Next we’ll create a new function called initEmailRecovery that will be used to initialize the email recovery process on the server-side. This method will be called from the client-side with the user’s email and the target public key from the iframe client. Calling the initEmailRecovery method will trigger an email sent to the user containing a credential bundle which will be used to authenticate the authIframeClient in the next step.

We export the initEmailRecovery server action to be called from the client-side.

app/actions.ts
// ... previous code

export const initEmailRecovery = async ({
  email,
  targetPublicKey,
}: {
  email: string;
  targetPublicKey: string;
}) => {
  const recoveryResponse = await turnkeyServer.initUserEmailRecovery({
    email,
    targetPublicKey,
  });
  return recoveryResponse;
};

​
Initialize Email Recovery

At this stage, we initialize the email recovery process using the server-side function we created in the previous step. The user will need to paste the credential bundle they receive in their email into your app, which is then used to authenticate the authIframeClient via the injectCredentialBundle method.

1

Import the server action

app/recovery.tsx
import { initEmailRecovery } from "./actions";
2

Add an input field for the user's email

app/recovery.tsx
// ...

export default function Recovery() {
  // ...

  // Create a state variable for the user's email
  const [email, setEmail] = useState("");

  return (
    <div>
      <input
        value={email}
        onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)}
        type="text"
      />
    </div>
  );
}
3

Create a function to initiate the recovery process

app/recovery.tsx
//...

export default function Recovery() {
  // ...

  // We'll use this later to conditionally render the input for the credential bundle
  const [initRecoveryResponse, setInitRecoveryResponse] = useState(null);

  const initRecovery = async (email: string) => {
    // Call the initEmailRecovery server action
    const response = await initEmailRecovery({
      email,
      targetPublicKey: authIframeClient?.iframePublicKey,
    });
    if (response) {
      setInitRecoveryResponse(response);
    }
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {/* <input ... /> */}
      <button onClick={() => initRecovery(email)}>Init Recovery</button>
    </div>
  );
}
4

Add an input for the credential bundle

app/recovery.tsx
//...

export default function Recovery() {
  // ...
  const [initRecoveryResponse, setInitRecoveryResponse] = useState(null);
  const [credentialBundle, setCredentialBundle] = useState("");

  return (
    <div>
      {/* If we have initiated the recovery process we'll render an input
      for the user to paste their credential bundle they received in their email */}
      {initRecoveryResponse ? (
        <input
          value={credentialBundle}
          onChange={(e) => setCredentialBundle(e.target.value)}
          type="text"
        />
      ) : (
        <input
          value={email}
          onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)}
          type="text"
        />
      )}
      <button onClick={() => initRecovery(email)}>Init Recovery</button>
    </div>
  );
}

​
Create User Passkey

Next, we’ll create a new passkey for the user and associate it with the email that was used in the recovery process. Assuming that the user has successfully received and entered their credential bundle, we generate a passkey to be used authenticate Turnkey requests.

1

Add a function to complete the recovery process

We’ll add a new function called completeRecovery that will create a new passkey for the user which will be used in the final recovery step.

app/recovery.tsx
//...export default function Recovery() {  //...  // We'll use //...

export default function Recovery() {
  //...

  // We'll use the useTurnkey hook to get the turnkey instance
  const { authIframeClient, turnkey } = useTurnkey();

  const completeRecovery = async () => {
    const passkeyClient = await turnkey.passkeyClient();

    const passkeyResponse = await passkeyClient?.createUserPasskey({
      publicKey: {
        user: {
          name: email,
          displayName: email,
        },
      },
    });
  };

  return <div>{/* ... */}</div>;
}
2

Add a button to call the completeRecovery function

app/recovery.tsx
//...

export default function Recovery() {
  //...
  const completeRecovery = async () => {/* ... */*/};

  return (
    <div>
      {/* ... */}

      {/* If we have the credential bundle, we'll render a button to complete the recovery process */}
      {credentialBundle ? (
        <button onClick={() => completeRecovery(credentialBundle)}>
          Complete Recovery
        </button>
      ) : (
        <button onClick={() => initRecovery(email)}>Init Recovery</button>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

​
Complete Email Recovery

Finally, we complete the email recovery process by passing the encodedChallenge and attestation from the passkey we previously created to the recoverUser method. This method will complete the email recovery process and if successful, will return a response containing the authenticator ID of the new passkey authenticator.

app/recovery.tsx

//...

export default function Recovery() {
  // We'll use the useTurnkey hook to get the turnkey instance
  const { authIframeClient, turnkey } = useTurnkey();

  const [initRecoveryResponse, setInitRecoveryResponse] = useState(null);

  const completeRecovery = async () => {
    const passkeyClient = await turnkey.passkeyClient();

    const passkeyResponse = await passkeyClient?.createUserPasskey({
      publicKey: {
        user: {
          name: email,
          displayName: email,
        },
      },
    });

    // If we have the encodedChallenge and attestation, we can complete the recovery process
    if (passkeyResponse?.encodedChallenge && passkeyResponse?.attestation) {
      const response = await authIframeClient!.recoverUser({
        organizationId: initRecoveryResponse?.activity.organizationId,
        userId: initRecoveryResponse.userId,
        authenticator: {
          // This should be set by the user to name their authenticator
          authenticatorName: "User Passkey",
          challenge: passkeyResponse.encodedChallenge,
          attestation: passkeyResponse.attestation,
        },
      });
      if (response) {
        console.log("User recovered successfully");
      }
    }
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {/* ... */}

      {/* If we have the credential bundle, we'll render a button to complete the recovery process */}
      {credentialBundle ? (
        <button onClick={() => completeRecovery(credentialBundle)}>
          Complete Recovery
        </button>
      ) : (
        <button onClick={() => initRecovery(email)}>Init Recovery</button>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

​
Conclusion

In this guide, we’ve walked through the process of recovering a user using their email using the Turnkey SDKs. By following these steps, you can implement email recovery in your application, providing users with a reliable way to regain access to their accounts or to onboard new users using only their email address. To remind, this is a legacy flow, if you intend to implement a fresh recovery mechanism please use Email Auth, which supports all activities, including adding new authenticators.

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