Auth/session not syncing on Laravel 12 – Waterhole creates user_id = null session and fails to detect logged-in user

Hi Waterhole team,

I'm using Waterhole v0.4.12 with Laravel 12.14.1.

Everything is installed and configured according to your official docs:

• Laravel guard is web
• App\Models\User implements AuthenticatesWaterhole and HasWaterholeUser
• toWaterholeUser() returns a valid PendingUser
• Waterhole's built-in auth is disabled (auth.php)
• Session driver is database
• SESSION_DOMAIN is .kinksters.test
• Waterhole route prefix is /forum
• Login override is done via ForumRoutes::add() as instructed

Repro Steps:

1. Log in to the Laravel app via /login
2. Laravel session is created with user_id = 2
3. Visit /debug-session — shows auth_user: 2 and correct session key
4. Visit /forum
5. A new session is created with user_id = null
6. Waterhole does not detect the user and redirects to login
7. Visiting /login returns to /dashboard — infinite loop

What I've Tried:

• Rebinding user provider via AppServiceProvider
• Creating middleware to manually sync session and log user in
• Manually booting session via a custom service provider
• Verified guard hashes (login_web_xxx) match via debug tools
• Upgraded to Laravel 12 and cleared all caches
• All cookies and session IDs are shared correctly
• Session ID remains the same between / and /forum

Expected:

Waterhole should recognize the logged-in Laravel user and auto-link/create the corresponding wh_users record.

This seems to be caused by Waterhole accessing the auth guard before Laravel has fully restored the session (especially under the Laravel 11+/12 bootstrap/app.php lifecycle).

Any help or patch would be greatly appreciated. I can provide a minimal repro if needed.

Thanks for your hard work on Waterhole — it’s a fantastic project and I really want to use it in production.