Disabling LibreChat Authentication Workarounds

Disabling LibreChat Authentication Workarounds | Generated by AI

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Short answer: you can’t completely turn off authentication in LibreChat, but you can stop the “keep asking me to log in” problem and make it feel close to “no-login.” Here’s what actually works (and why):

1) You can’t disable auth entirely

This is confirmed by the maintainer: registration can be disabled, but the auth system itself can’t be turned off. (GitHub)

2) Why you keep getting logged out

If you access your instance over HTTP (e.g., LAN IP), cookies are marked secure in production so the browser won’t keep them; you get booted back to login. Use HTTPS (even self-signed) or run the API in a dev mode that disables secure cookies. (GitHub)

3) Two reliable fixes

Option A — Proper/secure (recommended)

Put LibreChat behind HTTPS (nginx/caddy/traefik; self-signed is fine on LAN).

Then bump the session windows in your .env:

SESSION_EXPIRY=1000 * 60 * 60 * 24       # 24h
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY=(1000 * 60 * 60 * 24) * 30  # 30d

Restart containers after changing env. This keeps you logged in for days/weeks and fixes the cookie drop. (GitHub)

Option B — “I’m on a private LAN and just want it to stop logging out”

Create a docker-compose.override.yml and run the API in dev mode (disables secure cookies):
```
services:
  api:
    command: npm run backend:dev
```
docker compose up -d to apply. This is less secure (cookies not secure), but it stops the forced re-login over plain HTTP. (librechat.ai)

4) Optional quality-of-life tweaks

Disable new signups so it’s effectively single-user:
```
ALLOW_REGISTRATION=false
```
(You can still add users via npm run create-user if needed.) (librechat.ai)
Keep other auth toggles in .env (email/social login flags) if you want the simplest login path. (librechat.ai)

5) Quick checklist for your case (v0.8.0-rc3)

Decide: HTTPS proxy (best) or dev mode (quick LAN fix).
Set longer SESSION_EXPIRY and REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY in .env.
Restart the stack so env changes take effect.
(Optional) Turn off registration for a “single-user” feel.

If you want, paste your current docker-compose.yml and .env (without secrets). I’ll mark exactly what to add/change for your setup.

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