{"record":{"id":"99d2450732e4cb0d","repo":"Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm","slug":"you-need-to-set-an-auth-token-environment-variable","errorCode":null,"errorMessage":"You need to set an AUTH_TOKEN environment variable.","messagePattern":"You need to set an AUTH_TOKEN environment variable\\.","errorType":"http","errorClass":null,"httpStatus":401,"severity":"error","filePath":"server/utils/middleware/validatedRequest.js","lineNumber":27,"sourceCode":"  const multiUserMode = await SystemSettings.isMultiUserMode();\n  response.locals.multiUserMode = multiUserMode;\n  if (multiUserMode)\n    return await validateMultiUserRequest(request, response, next);\n\n  // When in development passthrough auth token for ease of development.\n  // Or if the user simply did not set an Auth token or JWT Secret\n  if (\n    process.env.NODE_ENV === \"development\" ||\n    !process.env.AUTH_TOKEN ||\n    !process.env.JWT_SECRET\n  ) {\n    UserMetaCache.setFromRequest(request);\n    next();\n    return;\n  }\n\n  if (!process.env.AUTH_TOKEN) {\n    response.status(401).json({\n      error: \"You need to set an AUTH_TOKEN environment variable.\",\n    });\n    return;\n  }\n\n  const auth = request.header(\"Authorization\");\n  const token = auth ? auth.split(\" \")[1] : null;\n\n  if (!token) {\n    response.status(401).json({\n      error: \"No auth token found.\",\n    });\n    return;\n  }\n\n  const bcrypt = require(\"bcryptjs\");\n  const { p } = decodeJWT(token);\n","sourceCodeStart":9,"sourceCodeEnd":45,"githubUrl":"https://github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm/blob/3aec848f2885144aa8f1e53b9731a04310d5d558/server/utils/middleware/validatedRequest.js#L9-L45","documentation":"Config guard in validatedRequest (single-user mode): the request carried a token but AUTH_TOKEN is not configured on the server, so there is no secret to compare against and authentication is refused with 401.","triggerScenarios":"Server started in simple single-user auth mode without AUTH_TOKEN set. Triggered when validatedRequest middleware finds no AUTH_TOKEN environment variable (validatedRequest.js:27).","commonSituations":"See trigger scenarios.","solutions":["Set the AUTH_TOKEN environment variable (and JWT_SECRET) and restart the server.","Alternatively unset auth entirely for development mode."],"exampleFix":null,"handlingStrategy":"validation","validationCode":null,"typeGuard":null,"tryCatchPattern":null,"preventionTips":[],"tags":[],"backgroundTag":null,"analyzedSha":"3aec848f2885144aa8f1e53b9731a04310d5d558","analyzedAt":"2026-08-18T10:02:21.017Z","contentChangedAt":"2026-08-18T10:02:21.017Z","schemaVersion":2},"datasetVersion":"2026-09-14T05:17:10.506Z"}