🎯 DX Improvements Based on Scout Integration

This release addresses critical developer experience issues discovered during real production integration.

✨ New Helper Functions

Better TypeScript Support:

• requireServerSession() - Get authenticated session or throw (no more ! assertions)
• isLatchSession() - Type guard for proper TypeScript narrowing
• checkLatchHealth() - Configuration validation for health check endpoints

🐛 Critical Fixes

Next.js 16 Compatibility:

• ❌ Fixed: export const runtime = 'nodejs' causes build errors in proxy.ts
• ✅ proxy.ts automatically uses Node.js runtime (no config needed)

Session Validation:

• ❌ Fixed: Examples checking session.idToken (property doesn't exist)
• ✅ Check session.sub instead (from ID token claims)

📚 Documentation

New Reference Implementation:

• examples/nextjs16/proxy.ts - Complete Next.js 16 proxy with proper session validation

Enhanced API_REFERENCE.md:

• Clear LatchSession/LatchUser structure documentation
• ✅ Correct vs ❌ Wrong usage examples
• Cookie name constants documentation
• Session validation patterns for proxy.ts

🧪 Testing

• Added 17 new tests for DX helpers
• All 182 tests passing
• No breaking changes

📦 What Changed

Added:

• requireServerSession() helper
• isLatchSession() type guard
• checkLatchHealth() config validator
• Reference proxy.ts for Next.js 16
• Comprehensive session documentation

Fixed:

• Next.js 16 proxy.ts runtime export issue
• Session validation patterns in examples
• Documentation clarity on session structure

🙏 Credits

Based on real production feedback from integrating Latch into Scout app. Thanks for the 2.5 hours of pain points that made this release possible!

📖 Links

• 📦 npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@lance0/latch
• 📚 Documentation: https://github.com/lance0/latch
• 🐛 Issues: https://github.com/lance0/latch/issues