Hello,

I am encountering some issues with my NextJS App while using the redirect() function in a server component that is not actually changing the URL as intended or based on a condition.

Here are the versions I am running:

"@clerk/nextjs": "^6.36.5",
"next": "^16.1.3",
"react": "^19.2.3",
"react-dom": "^19.2.3"

I am trying to find the industry standard when it comes to onboarding for new users and conditionally rendering the correct route based on a criteria without any noticeable flicker or issue with rendering two components and accidentally showing a dashboard with an empty state and then finally seeing the onboard or setup page.

The idea is that when users signup they will automatically go to /setup (where users can create or join an organization) since we know they have no organizations as a first time signup. I am redirecting them via Clerk redirect environment variable below:

NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_FORCE_REDIRECT_URL=/setup

This always works. It's nice and easy.

The tricky part is for users signing in and checking whether they created or join an organization and I have thought about using a server component to do that check for me and then redirect accordingly.

Server Component (Checking for a condition, then redirects) - /onboarding:

export default async function OnboardPage() {
console.log("--- ONBOARD PAGE HIT ---");

const { userId } = await auth();
console.log("userId:", userId);

if (!userId) {
console.log("Redirecting to /sign-in");
redirect("/sign-in");
}

const userOnboarded = true;

if (userOnboarded) {
console.log("Redirecting to /dashboard");
redirect("/dashboard");
}

console.log("Redirecting to /setup");
redirect("/setup");
}

My URL does hit the /onboarding after signing in but it never redirects or changes the URL based on the condition and it's stuck in this onboarding page and it's blank.

Anyone have an idea why? or could help me understand the issue here?

Thank you