[Question] Error "Please configure a key"

[panacorn]

Invidious companion keeps giving "Please configure a key" error despite correct config

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to set up Invidious with companion on Docker but having issues. Both services start up fine individually but they can't talk to each other.

What's happening

Invidious keeps restarting and showing this error:

Config: Please configure a key if you are using invidious companion.

But the companion is running perfectly and even responds to API calls when I test it manually.

My setup

I'm running on Docker Compose with latest images:

• quay.io/invidious/invidious:latest
• quay.io/invidious/invidious-companion:latest (version 2025.09.29-0065a3e)

Here's my config:

companion:
  image: quay.io/invidious/invidious-companion:latest
  container_name: companion
  environment:
    - SERVER_SECRET_KEY=abcd1234efgh5678

invidious:
  image: quay.io/invidious/invidious:latest
  environment:
    INVIDIOUS_CONFIG: |
      invidious_companion:
        - private_url: http://companion:8282/companion
          invidious_companion_key: abcd1234efgh5678

What I've tried

• Verified the keys match exactly
• Tested network connectivity between containers (works fine)
• Tried different URL formats (http://companion:8282 vs http://companion:8282/companion)
• Used different container names
• Added security restrictions like in the docs
• Removed security restrictions
• Even tried old Invidious versions (but can't find working tags)

Current status

The companion API actually works great when I test it directly:

curl -X POST 'http://localhost:8282/companion/youtubei/v1/player' \
     -H 'Authorization: Bearer abcd1234efgh5678' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d '{"videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"}'

This returns full stream data including 4K video URLs, audio formats, and subtitles. So the companion itself is definitely working.

But videos won't play in the Invidious web interface because it can't connect to companion internally.

Environment

• Platform: Synology DSM 7.2.2 with Docker Compose
• Date: October 2025
• Both containers are healthy and running
• PostgreSQL connects fine

Anyone else having this issue? I noticed similar problems in the TrueNAS repo (#3196) but that was supposedly fixed by adding /companion to the URL, which I'm already doing.

Starting to think there might be a protocol change in the recent companion version that broke internal communication, even though the HTTP API still works externally.

Any ideas? Really need to get video playback working for the kids.

Thanks!

docker-compose.yml

[unixfox]

Hello, this sounds like a configuration issue on your side.

As maintainers, we do not have a lot of free time so you should ask your question on our matrix channel or IRC.

[Fijxu]

environment should be:

    INVIDIOUS_CONFIG: |
      invidious_companion_key: abcd1234efgh5678
      invidious_companion:
        - private_url: http://companion:8282/companion

[panacorn]

environment should be:

    INVIDIOUS_CONFIG: |
      invidious_companion_key: abcd1234efgh5678
      invidious_companion:
        - private_url: http://companion:8282/companion

Thanks! Finally, it works on my Synology

[unixfox]

@panacorn don't share your instance publicly. you may ruin it due to bots finding it.