Strapi v5 Plugin API#

Strapi v5 removed @strapi/helper-plugin entirely and redistributed its ~50 exports across @strapi/strapi/admin and @strapi/design-system 1. Any plugin or custom admin code that still imports from @strapi/helper-plugin will crash the admin panel at runtime — the most common symptom being TypeError: checkUserHasPermissions is not a function or useRBAC must be used within Auth 2 3.

Key Breaking Changes#

Additional breaking changes affecting plugins: injectContentManagerComponent() removed, EditViewLayout/ListViewLayout refactored, and Design System upgraded 6.

useRBAC Signature Change#

The first argument changed from a named-key object to a flat array 5:

// v4
const { allowedActions } = useRBAC({ main: [{ action: 'admin::something.main', subject: null }] });

// v5
const { allowedActions } = useRBAC([{ action: 'admin::something.main', subject: null }]);

allowedActions keys in v5 are derived from the last dot-separated action segment, CamelCased (e.g. admin::roles.create-draft → canCreateDraft) 7. Passing an object still works but logs a deprecation warning 7.

Internally, useRBAC pulls checkUserHasPermissions from the Auth context via useAuth. If a plugin renders outside the v5 <AuthProvider> tree, checkUserHasPermissions is undefined and the crash occurs 7.

Common Crash Patterns#

The checkUserHasPermissions crash was also reproduced as a version-specific regression in Strapi v5.31.3 and resolved by upgrading to v5.34.0 2.

Migration#

Run the codemod first — the deprecate-helper-plugin codemod handles a subset of import relocations automatically 1:

npx @strapi/upgrade@latest 5.0.0

Then address remaining manual changes using the full helper-plugin migration reference 4. The most common patterns:

• useRBAC: move import to @strapi/strapi/admin, change argument to array 5
• useRBACProvider: replace with useAuth from @strapi/strapi/admin 4
• hasPermissions: replace with checkUserHasPermissions via useAuth selector 4
• CheckPagePermissions: replace with Page.Protect from @strapi/strapi/admin 4
• useCMEditViewDataManager: replace with unstable_useContentManagerContext 4
• useNotification: move import; warning type becomes danger; return type is now an object 4

After updating, clean and rebuild:

rm -rf .cache build dist node_modules && npm install && npm run build

Diagnosing third-party plugins: search for unmigrated dependencies:

grep -r "helper-plugin" ./node_modules --include="package.json" -l
grep -r "from '@strapi/helper-plugin'" ./src -l

Key References#