Default baseUrl is used when logging in after navigating from pre-rendered page

[br0kenpixel]

I have an application that should use a specific backend URL set using NUXT_PUBLIC_SANCTUM_BASE_URL. However, I have noticed that sometimes, the frontend uses the default http://localhost/ URL instead of the configured one.

Reloading the page would sometimes fix the issue. After looking into this a bit more I noted that if I try to log in after I go to my login page from some other page, that is pre-rendered, then this issue would occur.

In my case, the index page is pre-redered, but the login page is not. So:

1. Opening the index page
2. Navigating to my login page
3. Trying to log in

would make the app use the default baseUrl, instead if the one set in NUXT_PUBLIC_SANCTUM_BASE_URL. Reloading the login page, and then logging in works.

Is this the intended behavior? The only solution I could come up with is to set sanctum.baseUrl to whatever NUXT_PUBLIC_SANCTUM_BASE_URL is set to. But that would break local development. I've seen others use something like process.env.BACKEND_URL, but from my understanding, the Nuxt config is only executed when running npm run build, and not whenever the server is started, making the baseUrl the same as whatever process.env.BACKEND_URL was at build time. This is not suitable for my case, since I have to allow changing the domain using environment variables. Overriding it with NUXT_PUBLIC_SANCTUM_BASE_URL would work, but it would cause this same issue.

My Nuxt config:

export default defineNuxtConfig({
    compatibilityDate: '2025-07-15',

    devtools: { enabled: true },

    modules: [
        '@nuxt/image',
        'vuetify-nuxt-module', // Vuetify
        'nuxt-auth-sanctum' // Laravel Sanctum auth
    ],

    nitro: {
        prerender: {
            routes: ["/", /* ... */],
        },
    },

    sanctum: {
        baseUrl: process.env.NO_DEFAULT_SANCTUM_URL === 'true' ? undefined : 'http://localhost:8000',
        redirect: {
            onLogin: '/dashboard',
            onLogout: "/",
            onAuthOnly: '/login',
            keepRequestedRoute: false,
            onGuestOnly: false,
        },
        redirectIfAuthenticated: true
    },

    typescript: {
        strict: true,
        typeCheck: true,
    }
});

[manchenkoff]

Hey @br0kenpixel, this is out of the package control since Nuxt takes care of propagating env/config by itself. My guess is that Nuxt compiles this config for prerendered pages, so it does not get updated when you navigate to another route.

I would recommend doing the opposite, define NUXT_PUBLIC_SANCTUM_BASE_URL for local development and have production config in nuxt.config.ts, it should help.