No application encryption key 🐘 PHP

Laravel: No application encryption key has been specified.

Laravel’s APP_KEY is missing, so it can’t encrypt sessions and cookies.

Seen on: PHP

Meaning

Fresh clones and new servers don’t have a .env with APP_KEY. Laravel refuses to run without it.

Common causes

  • .env not created from .env.example
  • APP_KEY empty
  • Config cached before the key was set

⚡ Quick fix

  1. cp .env.example .env && php artisan key:generate
  2. php artisan config:clear after setting it
  3. Set APP_KEY as a real environment variable in production/CI

Detailed fix by platform

PHP

  1. Never regenerate the key on a live app — existing encrypted data and sessions become unreadable

How to diagnose

  1. .env — Exists with APP_KEY?
  2. Cache — bootstrap/cache/config.php stale?

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