itzmidinesh

itzmidinesh

I’m encountering a CORS configuration issue in my Phoenix app during deployment due to a mismatch between compile-time and runtime configurations.

Current Setup

In endpoint.ex, before MyApp.Router, I have:

plug CORSPlug, origin: Application.compile_env(:my_app, :cors_origin)

In config.exs (for dev and test environments):

config :my_app,
  cors_origins: System.get_env("CORS_ORIGINS", "*") |> String.split(",")

In runtime.exs:

config :my_app,
  cors_origins: System.fetch_env!("CORS_ORIGINS") |> String.split(",")

The Issue

When deploying to production (using Fly.io), I encounter this error:

ERROR! the application :my_app has a different value set for key :cors_origins during runtime compared to compile time. Since this application environment entry was marked as compile time, this difference can lead to unexpected behavior:
* Compile time value was not set
* Runtime value was set to: ["http://localhost:5173"]

If I change endpoint.ex to use Application.get_env/2:

plug CORSPlug, origin: Application.get_env(:my_app, :cors_origin)

the app deploys successfully, but I see a warning that get_env/2 is discouraged in this context.

I’ve been troubleshooting this for about eight hours and could use some guidance. Am I overlooking something? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Showing Posts 1 to 5

karlosmid

karlosmid

Hi, you can control check_origin via config files (runtime.exs, config.exs, dev.exs and test.exs:

config :your_app, YourAppWeb.Endpoint,
check_origin: "your_value"

and control prod, dev, and test env as you wish, no need to edit endpoint.ex file where you can only set values during compilation phase.

itzmidinesh

itzmidinesh OP

If anyone encounters the same issue in the future, here’s how I resolved it:

I moved the environment variable fetching logic to a helper module, which fixed the problem.

plug CORSPlug, origin: &MyAppWeb.Config.cors_origins/1

Here’s the helper module:

defmodule MyAppWeb.Config do
  def cors_origins, do: Application.get_env(:my_app, :cors_origins)
end

Note: Ensure you use the capture operator (&) when calling the function in the plug. Calling it without the capture operator will not work—I made this mistake and spent an entire day debugging it.

I hope this helps anyone facing a similar issue!

dimitarvp

dimitarvp

Thank you for posting the solution.

Any insight on why you didn’t use Application.compile_env instead? Do you expect modification of the application’s configuration at runtime?

itzmidinesh

itzmidinesh OP

I opted not to use Application.compile_env because I needed the flexibility to update the origins dynamically without requiring a recompilation.

dimitarvp

dimitarvp

Thought so, thanks for elaborating.

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