I'm using cookie-based authentication in my Next.js app. When a user logs in, I set an HTTP-only cookie in their browser.

The issue I'm facing is that after setting or modifying cookies (e.g., on login, logout, or any similar action), router.push() doesn't seem to work as expected. Specifically, after a successful login, I try to redirect the user to a protected route (e.g., /dashboard) using router.push('/dashboard'), but it doesn't navigate. I suspect the middleware is the reason.

It seems like the middleware runs before the new cookies are available, so it still treats the user as unauthenticated and blocks access to the protected route. However, if I use window.location.href = '/dashboard', the redirect works correctly and the middleware recognizes the newly set cookies.

Is this a known issue with middleware and router.push() after setting HTTP-only cookies? Is there a better way to handle this redirect so that the middleware correctly detects the updated authentication state?