Better Auth

Good (public checks)

Agent Native Score

A lightweight, open-source authentication library for TypeScript/JavaScript that provides session management, OAuth, email/password auth, and multi-factor authentication out of the box. It's designed to be self-hosted and framework-agnostic.

Categories: Authentication · Identity

#1 of 20 in Authentication · #1 of 16 in Identity

Checklist Breakdown

0 of 33 checks passed.

Discovery 65%

Can an agent find and understand this tool without a web search?

— Published OpenAPI/Swagger spec

— Has llms.txt or llms-full.txt

— Has an MCP server (official or well-maintained)

— MCP server listed in a public registry

— API reference docs are publicly accessible

— Docs include runnable code examples

— Has a public changelog or release notes

— Has a public status page

Auth & Onboarding Not yet scored

Can an agent create an account and get credentials without human intervention?

— Signup does not require CAPTCHA

— Signup does not require phone verification

— Supports API key auth (not only OAuth)

— API key obtainable without manual approval

— No mandatory billing info to start

— Can sign up without creating an organization

Pricing Not yet scored

Can an agent operate autonomously without upfront payment or contracts?

— Has a free tier

— Usage-based pricing available

— No minimum contract or commitment

— Pricing page is public (no 'contact sales')

— Free tier sufficient for testing (not just a trial)

Agent Tooling Requires account Not yet scored

How well does the API work for non-human consumers?

— SDK available in 2+ languages

— Structured error responses (JSON with error codes)

— Idempotency support on write endpoints

— Pagination on list endpoints

— Webhook/event support

— Sandbox or test mode available

— Rate limit headers in responses

— Consistent REST resource naming

Reliability Requires account 50%

Does the tool fail gracefully when an agent makes a mistake?

— Meaningful error messages (not just 500)

— 429 responses include Retry-After header

— Documented uptime SLA (99.9%+)

— Graceful degradation under rate limits

— Request IDs in responses for debugging

— API versioning supported

Reviewer Notes

Better Auth is a strong self-hosted authentication solution with good documentation and a clean TypeScript SDK, making it agent-friendly for backend integration. However, it lacks formal OpenAPI specs and MCP servers, requiring agents to work with the SDK directly rather than via standard API discovery mechanisms. The main weakness for agents is that it's a library to be self-hosted rather than a service with managed infrastructure—agents would need deployment and operational capabilities beyond typical API consumption, and there's no programmatic signup flow for managing accounts autonomously.

Better Auth

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