diff --git a/apps/api/v1/middlewares/auth.ts b/apps/api/v1/middlewares/auth.ts
index 7c0acb55..5f302b83 100644
--- a/apps/api/v1/middlewares/auth.ts
+++ b/apps/api/v1/middlewares/auth.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import type { User } from '@/prisma/generated/zod'
 import { clerkMiddleware, getAuth } from '@hono/clerk-auth'
+import type { Context } from 'hono'
 import { createMiddleware } from 'hono/factory'
+import { HTTPException } from 'hono/http-exception'
 import { findUserById } from '../services/user.service'
 
 declare module 'hono' {
@@ -29,3 +31,13 @@ export const authMiddleware = createMiddleware(async (c, next) => {
 
   await next()
 })
+
+export const getAuthUser = (c: Context) => c.get('user')
+
+export const getAuthUserStrict = (c: Context) => {
+  const user = getAuthUser(c)
+  if (!user) {
+    throw new HTTPException(401, { message: 'unauthorized' })
+  }
+  return user
+}
diff --git a/apps/api/v1/routes/users.ts b/apps/api/v1/routes/users.ts
index 5a564086..b7f18ea0 100644
--- a/apps/api/v1/routes/users.ts
+++ b/apps/api/v1/routes/users.ts
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 import { zValidator } from '@hono/zod-validator'
 import { Hono } from 'hono'
+import { getAuthUser } from '../middlewares/auth'
 import { createUser } from '../services/user.service'
 import { zCreateUser } from '../validation'
 
 const router = new Hono()
 
 router.post('/', zValidator('json', zCreateUser), async (c) => {
-  const existingUser = c.get('user')
+  const existingUser = getAuthUser(c)
 
   if (existingUser) {
     return c.json({ message: 'user already exists' }, 409)