[Bug] Dashboard login fails with "Invalid API Key" due to hardcoded VITE_API_URL / environment mismatch

[jairo315-bit]

When deploying OpenWA locally using docker compose with the --profile full orchestration, the dashboard loads correctly, but it is impossible to authenticate. Entering the configured API_MASTER_KEY (or the default seed key found in the data files) always results in an "Invalid API Key" error.

After inspecting the container environment and network behavior, the issue appears to be caused by how variables are handled during the Vite build process inside Dockerfile.traefik. The frontend is trying to resolve requests against a hardcoded or misconfigured endpoint, breaking the communication between the dashboard UI and the backend API, which returns a generic invalid key message.

Steps to Reproduce
Configure docker-compose.yml using the default repository profile settings.

Define API_MASTER_KEY in the environment variables.

Boot the environment using docker compose --profile full up -d --build.

Verify via docker exec openwa-api printenv API_MASTER_KEY that the backend holds the key successfully.

Open the dashboard at http://localhost:2886 and attempt to log in using the correct key.

Expected Behavior
The dashboard should build with dynamic environment contexts and successfully authenticate against the backend API container.

Actual Behavior
The UI rejects any key provided with an "Invalid API Key" error due to a CORS or network mismatch caused by the compiled production build of the frontend.

Environment
OS: Windows 11 / Docker Desktop

Deployment: Docker Compose (with Traefik profile)

OpenWA Version: Latest main branch

[mr2samawi]

##89 (comment)

[jairo315-bit]

##89 (comment)

Thanks for the tip regarding the .api-key file location inside the container. However, the API key itself is definitely not the issue here.

I successfully accessed the container and manually forced/overwrote the key inside /app/data/.api-key to a custom string (and verified it matches perfectly via cat). Even with the absolute certainty of using the correct, matching key, the Dashboard UI still rejects it with the exact same "Invalid API Key" error.

This confirms that the login failure is a front-end communication or routing issue (likely the hardcoded VITE_API_URL bug mentioned earlier in this issue). The dashboard is simply unable to reach the API container to validate the token, resulting in a generic failure screen regardless of what key is typed.

The API layer on port 2785 works flawlessly via Swagger/Postman, but the built-in Dashboard UI profile is currently broken for local multi-container environments

[sbeijersbergen-creator]

Not sure how much help this comment is, but it appears I have it the other way around, where my dashboard works with the API key, but swagger isn't able to send request, giving a 401 error.

Not sure if seperate issue or connected.