# Unable to start local install of Ghost without setting WEBHOOK\_SECRET environment variable?

**URL:** <https://forum.ghost.org/t/unable-to-start-local-install-of-ghost-without-setting-webhook-secret-environment-variable/24199>\
**Category:** Developer help\
**Created:** [July 15, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/unable-to-start-local-install-of-ghost-without-setting-webhook-secret-environment-variable/24199 "2021-07-15T21:06:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![curiositry](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/curiositry/32/1084_2.png) [@curiositry](https://forum.ghost.org/u/curiositry)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/unable-to-start-local-install-of-ghost-without-setting-webhook-secret-environment-variable/24199/1 "2021-07-15T21:06:22Z")

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Hi there,

`ghost start` fails with:

> Message: Ghost was able to start, but errored during boot with: Cannot use remote webhooks in development. Please restart in production mode or see [Ghost Webhooks](https://ghost.org/docs/webhooks/#stripe-webhooks) for developing with Stripe.

However, `env WEBHOOK_SECRET=test ghost start` works fine.

(Note: I set up stripe back on Ghost 3, and did some testing with stripe webhooks.)

**I suspect I’m missing something ridiculously simple.** However, from Googling and reading the docs, I haven’t figured out why WEBHOOK\_SECRET is required for Ghost to start, or how my config ended up scrambled.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![savedra](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/savedra/32/14145_2.png) [@savedra](https://forum.ghost.org/u/savedra)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/unable-to-start-local-install-of-ghost-without-setting-webhook-secret-environment-variable/24199/2 "2021-07-17T22:40:51Z")

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It worked for me. Thanks!