@clerk/clerk-js no longer has a headless export

[spaceemotion]

Preliminary Checks

• I have reviewed the documentation: https://clerk.com/docs

• I have searched for existing issues: https://github.com/clerk/javascript/issues

• I have not already reached out to Clerk support via email or Discord (if you have, no need to open an issue here)

• This issue is not a question, general help request, or anything other than a bug report directly related to Clerk. Please ask questions in our Discord community: https://clerk.com/discord.

Reproduction

n/a

Publishable key

n/a

Description

I just wanted to update our Clerk JS installation from version 5.125.9 to 6.28.1 and it seems like the headless export has disappeared? I also noticed that the new Clerk SDK has a lot of, to us, useless imports and weight we do not need:

1. Billing + Checkouts + Stripe
2. UI (un)mounting
3. Waitlist handling

I am missing a true "core" or "headless" export like the one before. We do not use react, we only use Clerk for keeping the API keys and JWTs alive - that's it. Shipping the current @clerk/clerk-js version would be too much useless code for the client.

Environment

System:
    OS: Linux 6.18 Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
    CPU: (12) x64 AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor
    Memory: 14.82 GB / 23.47 GB
    Container: Yes
    Shell: 3.6.1 - /usr/bin/fish
  Binaries:
    Node: 24.15.0 - /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/fnm_multishells/504944_1786549411768/bin/node
    npm: 11.12.1 - /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/fnm_multishells/504944_1786549411768/bin/npm
    pnpm: 11.10.0 - /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/fnm_multishells/504944_1786549411768/bin/pnpm
  npmPackages:
    @clerk/clerk-js: catalog: => 6.28.1
    @clerk/shared: catalog: => 4.28.1
    typescript: catalog: => 7.0.2

[wobsoriano]

Hey @spaceemotion In Core 3, @clerk/clerk-js is "headless" in the sense that the UI is now loaded separately. See Core 3 upgrade guide.

For a direct, UI-free integration, the intended usage is:

import { Clerk } from '@clerk/clerk-js'

const clerk = new Clerk(publishableKey);
await clerk.load();

This does not load @clerk/ui. However, youre correct that the npm entry is still considerably larger than the old headless bundle