title: NoEnvOutsideConfig parent: Custom Issues nav_order: 1

NoEnvOutsideConfig

Emitted when env() is called outside the config/ directory.

Why this is a problem

When you run php artisan config:cache, Laravel loads all config files once and caches the result. After that, the .env file is not loaded — so any env() call outside config/ returns null.

This is a documented Laravel behavior:

You should be confident that you are only calling the env function from within your configuration files. [...] If you cache your configuration, the env function will only return null.

Examples

// Bad — will return null when config is cached
class PaymentService
{
    public function getKey(): string
    {
        return env('STRIPE_SECRET'); // NoEnvOutsideConfig
    }
}

// Good — read env in config, use config() elsewhere

// config/services.php
return [
    'stripe' => [
        'secret' => env('STRIPE_SECRET'),
    ],
];

// app/Services/PaymentService.php
class PaymentService
{
    public function getKey(): string
    {
        return config('services.stripe.secret');
    }
}

How to fix

1. Move the env() call into a config file (e.g. config/services.php)
2. Reference the value via config() in your application code