Error: There was an uncaught error: JwtStrategy requires a secret or key

[tiefighter]

What happened?

Try to upgrade to latest version and right after all containers goes up, I got this error.
Try to generate new JWT keys, but no joy. Could you help me guys?

Version Information

docker images | grep librechat
ghcr.io/danny-avila/librechat-dev-api latest 101f25cf84f2 21 hours ago 1.27GB
ghcr.io/danny-avila/librechat-rag-api-dev-lite latest d813432c9b0a 2 weeks ago 1.68GB

Steps to Reproduce

1. just upgrade from 2 weeks old version
2. no modification at all.

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

No response

Relevant log output

2025-09-14 22:40:25 info: RAG API is running and reachable at http://rag_api:8000.
2025-09-14 22:40:25 info: Turnstile is DISABLED (no siteKey provided).
2025-09-14 22:40:25 info: No changes needed for 'USER' role permissions
2025-09-14 22:40:25 info: No changes needed for 'ADMIN' role permissions
Social logins are disabled. Set ALLOW_SOCIAL_LOGIN=true to enable them.
2025-09-14 22:40:25 error: There was an uncaught error: JwtStrategy requires a secret or key

Screenshots

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[danny-avila]

Make sure all dependencies are installed correctly, and that the following environment variables are defined, it's the only way this error can happen.

JWT_SECRET=your-secret
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=your-refresh-secret

If you updated, it's possible the update was not done correctly, so any insight into your process will help determine.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45525077/nodejs-typeerrorjwtstrategy-requires-a-secret-or-key

[danny-avila]

Updating Instructions (docker):
https://www.librechat.ai/docs/local/docker#update-librechat

[tiefighter]

Upgrade went as usual, following update instructions from docs.
That's weird. My .env wasn't changed.
Keep searching for a solution.

[tiefighter]

I just fixed this issue.

ADDED to docker-compose.yml:

api:
# ... other configurations ...
env_file: # Added this section
- .env # Now properly loads .env file