authorized request to rails api not working on render server

Question

Working from a Vue front end with a Rails API, I am attempting to implement following/unfollowing. this works fine on my local machine, but on my Render server, I am getting the message Filter chain halted, without the follow being created.

I thought/think this might be an environment vars issue, but I have checked the secret_key and confirmed via the rails console that JWT.decode is working. The request headers include the correct token as well.

Server log is:

Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  I, [2023-04-05T17:21:16.175314 #73]  INFO -- : [61a6e555-e384-49d0-bac6-27b8aaaece9a] Started POST "/authors/1e6935d8-7b95-4d72-bb76-1d8f8a535e70/follow" for 172.70.114.157 at 2023-04-05 17:21:16 +0000
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  I, [2023-04-05T17:21:16.176134 #73]  INFO -- : [61a6e555-e384-49d0-bac6-27b8aaaece9a] Processing by AuthorsController#follow as */*
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  I, [2023-04-05T17:21:16.176184 #73]  INFO -- : [61a6e555-e384-49d0-bac6-27b8aaaece9a]   Parameters: {"id"=>"1e6935d8-7b95-4d72-bb76-1d8f8a535e70"}
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  header is eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoiYzJhZWI3NDEtM2YzNS00NjA5LThhNDctYzgwMDc4OWRlOTU3IiwiZXhwIjoxNjgwNzk4ODUzfQ.rwqS6UHmtbH8NoC6dYphlPPtnotMhY0jmsXF_xae3sE
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  decoding token: eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoiYzJhZWI3NDEtM2YzNS00NjA5LThhNDctYzgwMDc4OWRlOTU3IiwiZXhwIjoxNjgwNzk4ODUzfQ.rwqS6UHmtbH8NoC6dYphlPPtnotMhY0jmsXF_xae3sE
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  I, [2023-04-05T17:21:16.179648 #73]  INFO -- : [61a6e555-e384-49d0-bac6-27b8aaaece9a] Filter chain halted as :authorize_request rendered or redirected
Apr 5 01:21:16 PM  I, [2023-04-05T17:21:16.179767 #73]  INFO -- : [61a6e555-e384-49d0-bac6-27b8aaaece9a] Completed 401 Unauthorized in 4ms (Views: 0.2ms | ActiveRecord: 0.5ms | Allocations: 598)

Here is the Authors Controller:

class AuthorsController < ApplicationController
  # skip_before_action :verify_authenticity_token
  before_action :find_author, except: [:index]
  before_action :authorize_request, except: [:index, :show, :followers]

  def index
    @authors = Author.all
    render json: @authors.to_json( :include => [:followers]), status: :ok
    
  end

  def show
    render json: @author.to_json( :include => [:followers]), status: :ok
  end

  def follow
    if @current_user
      @current_user.followeds << @author
      render json: @current_user
    else
      render json: { errors: 'No current user' }
    end
  end

  def unfollow
    @current_user.followed_authors.find_by(followed_id: @author.id).destroy
  end

  def followers
    @followers = @author.followers
                        # .paginate(page: params[:page])
    render json: @followers, status: :ok
  end

  private

  def find_author
    @author = Author.find(params[:id])
    rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
      render json: { errors: 'Author not found' }, status: :not_found
    end
end

Authorize-request action in Application controller:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::API

  def not_found
    render json: { error: 'not_found' }
  end

  def authorize_request
    header = request.headers['Authorization']
    header = header.split(' ').last if header
    puts "header is #{header}"
    begin
      @decoded = JsonWebToken.decode(header)
      puts "decoded header is #{@decoded}"
      puts "user id is: #{@decoded[0]['user_id']}"
      @current_user = User.find(@decoded[0]['user_id'])
      puts "current_user is #{@current_user}"
    rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound => e
      render json: { errors: e.message }, status: :unauthorized
    rescue JWT::DecodeError => e
      render json: { errors: e.message }, status: :unauthorized
    end
  end
end

and JsonWebToken.rb:

class JsonWebToken
  # SECRET_KEY = Rails.application.secrets.secret_key_base

  def self.encode(payload, exp = 24.hours.from_now)
    payload[:exp] = exp.to_i
    JWT.encode(payload, ENV['SECRET_KEY'])
  end

  def self.decode(token)
    puts("decoding token: #{token}")
    decoded = JWT.decode(token, ENV['SECRET_KEY'])
    puts("decoded is #{decoded}")
    return decoded
  end
end