#6246·sim

Railway template generates invalid ENCRYPTION_KEY (should be 64-char hex string)

Author: vitalos-devCreated Aug 4, 2026Updated Sep 12, 2026
Labelsbug

Description

Deploying Sim using the official Railway template generates an ENCRYPTION_KEY that is not compatible with Sim.

The generated value looks like:

9U8FH7siuiZFhVbe--pf...

However, when attempting to save Workspace Secrets, the backend returns:

ENCRYPTION_KEY must be set to a 64-character hex string

and the request fails with HTTP 500.

Expected

The Railway template should generate ENCRYPTION_KEY as:

openssl rand -hex 32

which produces a 64-character hexadecimal string.

Actual

The generated value appears to be a generic secret (base64/url-safe), not a hex string.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Deploy using the official Railway template.
  2. Open Settings → Secrets.
  3. Add TEST_SECRET=hello.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Observe HTTP 500.

Railway log:

ENCRYPTION_KEY must be set to a 64-character hex string

Workaround

Generate a new key with:

openssl rand -hex 32

Replace ENCRYPTION_KEY in Railway and redeploy.