Issue Report: WebSocket Connection Failing with Laravel Reverb | Laravel | Page 1

While integrating Laravel Echo with Reverb as the broadcasting driver, I encountered a persistent WebSocket connection failure during local development. Below are the key symptoms and setup details that led to the issue.

Browser Console Errors

Unchecked runtime.lastError: The message port closed before a response was received.
WebSocket connection to 'ws://localhost:8080/app/FAKEKEY1234567890=?protocol=7&client=js&version=8.4.0&flash=false' failed:

This error appeared multiple times in the browser console, indicating that the client could not establish or maintain a WebSocket connection with the Reverb server running locally.

Echo Client Configuration

import Echo from 'laravel-echo';
import Pusher from 'pusher-js';

window.Pusher = Pusher;

window.Echo = new Echo({
    broadcaster: 'reverb',
    key: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_APP_KEY,
    wsHost: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_HOST,
    wsPort: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_PORT ?? 80,
    wssPort: import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_PORT ?? 443,
    forceTLS: (import.meta.env.VITE_REVERB_SCHEME ?? 'http') === 'https',
    enabledTransports: ['ws', 'wss'],
});

window.Echo.channel('chat')
    .listen('.message.sent', (e) => {
        console.log('📥 New message received:', e.message);
    });

Environment Variables

# Reverb Broadcasting
BROADCAST_CONNECTION=reverb

REVERB_APP_ID=laravel
REVERB_APP_KEY=FAKEKEY1234567890
REVERB_APP_SECRET=secret
REVERB_HOST=localhost
REVERB_PORT=8080
REVERB_SCHEME=http

VITE_REVERB_APP_KEY=FAKEKEY1234567890
VITE_REVERB_HOST=localhost
VITE_REVERB_PORT=8080
VITE_REVERB_SCHEME=http

Reverb Server Output (via Sail)

./vendor/bin/sail artisan reverb:start
WARN[0000] The "d" variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
...
INFO  Starting server on 0.0.0.0:8080 (localhost).

Repeated warnings about undefined variables (d and fd) appeared, although the server claimed to be running on the expected port.

#Issue Report: WebSocket Connection Failing with Laravel Reverb