method

secret_key_base

secret_key_base()
public

The secret_key_base is used as the input secret to the application’s key generator, which in turn is used to create all MessageVerifiers/MessageEncryptors, including the ones that sign and encrypt cookies.

In development and test, this is randomly generated and stored in a temporary file in tmp/development_secret.txt.

In all other environments, we look for it first in ENV[“SECRET_KEY_BASE”], then credentials.secret_key_base, and finally secrets.secret_key_base. For most applications, the correct place to store it is in the encrypted credentials file.