Rails: How to fix "Missing secret_key_base for 'production' environment"

Question

I simply can't get past the message:

Missing `secret_key_base` for 'production' environment, set this string with `rails credentials:edit` (ArgumentError)

I have Rails 5.2.0, and ran

EDITOR=vim rails credentials:edit

and inside:

production:
   secret_key_base: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Save and, in the terminal:

RAILS_ENV=production rails c

Am I missing something? I've restarted the server and got the same issue, but have no issue in development mode.

Answer 1

Rails 5.2.0 requires an extra stage for the production environment:

config.require_master_key = true    # in config/environments/production.rb

Without it, Rails still falls back to the legacy secret.yml mechanism (for now).

Engine Yard's Christopher Rigor has written a concise post on it. The relevant piece:

Reading the Credentials

If you want to use the credentials in the production environment, add the following to config/environments/production.rb

config.require_master_key = true

A good read to also see up and down sides.

Note: As @TomDogg found out, Rails 5.2.1 seems again different, so this answer may only apply to 5.2.0.