I am extremely new to NextJS, I am trying to figure out what the best possible way to implement JWT Auth into my application is.

The method I am currently seems like it can work, but doesn't feel like best practice.

As of right now, my client-side login function sets a cookie

setCookie('jwtToken', token);

Then my server's middleware.ts (which is matched to all authenticated routes), I grab the token from the cookies and perform checks inside the Middleware.

export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  if (!tokenChecks(token)) {
    return NextResponse.redirect('/login');
  }
  return NextResponse.next();
}

However, my concern is that the docs warn against running any database checks within middleware.
- How would be best to begin implementing authorization checks on certain pages?
- What are some general design principles I should keep in mind while doing this?
- Are there any security-related pitfalls I should be avoiding here?