Next.js with Clerk Auth - how to detect if a user just signed up?

Using Clerk Auth, I have a working login/sign-up flow with Next.js 13 middleware.

When a user signs up, I want to add a row to my DB's Users table.

The problem with middleware is that it runs on every single request and I don't want to make a call to my database to check if the user exists so I can create a record.

Does Clerk return any data that I can use to differentiate a sign-up vs a normal request?

I think you might need to create webhooks that listen to user.created. See

• https://clerk.com/docs/users/sync-data-to-your-backend
• https://reference.clerk.dev/v/master/backend/webhooks