How to authenticate a Next.js Route Handler using Clerk

In this blog post, the author demonstrates how to use Clerk, a user management and authentication tool, to protect routes in a Next.js application that users will access and API endpoints required by Ably client-side SDKs. The process involves setting up an Ably account, installing necessary dependencies, configuring environment variables, adding basic authentication using Clerk components, and protecting API endpoints with middleware. The author also explains how to use the username attribute from Clerk for user profile data management in generating Ably Token Requests.