Package

filament/filament

Package Version

v3.0, v4.0

Laravel Version

v.12

Livewire Version

v.3

PHP Version

PHP 8.4

Problem description

This typically occurs:
• On pages or components that attempt to fetch user notifications, such as the Filament notification dropdown or database notification query, before a user is authenticated.
• In background jobs or console commands that run outside a user context.
• When using a custom auth setup (e.g., multiple guards) and the expected user guard isn’t active.

💡 Root Cause

The code assumes that Filament::auth()->user() always returns a valid user model.
However, when null is returned, calling $user->notifications() immediately throws a fatal error.

Expected behavior

When the authenticated user model is not available (for example, no user is logged in), the system should gracefully handle notification queries without throwing an error.

Specifically:
• The code should check whether a user instance exists before attempting to access the notifications() relationship.
• If a user is authenticated, the system should return that user’s notifications as usual.
• If no user is authenticated, the system should instead return:
• an empty notification collection, or
• the notification model type (depending on implementation needs),
without causing a fatal exception.

Steps to reproduce

1.	Set up a Filament v4 panel that includes the notification component (for example, the user menu notification dropdown or a widget that calls auth()->user()->notifications()).
2.	Log out of the application, or access the panel without an authenticated user (so that Filament::auth()->user() returns null).
3.	Try to load a Filament page that references notifications — for example:
•	The dashboard with the notification bell enabled.
•	Any component, widget, or layout that calls auth()->user()->notifications().
4.	Observe the error in your logs or browser: `Call to a member function notifications() on null`

Reproduction repository (issue will be closed if this is not valid)

https://github.com/vasi-rus/filament

Relevant log output