Forge Deploy Issues

So I have taken the plunge and am trying out Forge. I have a Linode (Akamai) server.

I have the basic deployment working. I am on a subdomain app.notionpotion.io

I can load the basic site (think no data access) and navigate around - as soon as I try to do anything that is hitting something on the back end e.g. register or login, some errors are being thrown. I've looked the logs but must be missing something...It looks like it is hitting an exception but without an actual message getting passed but something funky is going on. I'm still learning here, so am hoping it is something obvious. Log data below

[2023-06-07 23:41:06] production.ERROR: Undefined property: App\Exceptions\Handler::$messages {"exception":"[object] (ErrorException(code: 0): Undefined property: App\Exceptions\Handler::$messages at /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/app/Exceptions/Handler.php:66)
[stacktrace]
#0 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Bootstrap/HandleExceptions.php(250): Illuminate\Foundation\Bootstrap\HandleExceptions->handleError()
#1 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/app/Exceptions/Handler.php(66): Illuminate\Foundation\Bootstrap\HandleExceptions->Illuminate\Foundation\Bootstrap\{closure}()
#2 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Routing/Pipeline.php(51): App\Exceptions\Handler->render()
#3 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(185): Illuminate\Routing\Pipeline->handleException()
#4 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Pipeline/Pipeline.php(116): Illuminate\Pipeline\Pipeline->Illuminate\Pipeline\{closure}()
#5 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Http/Kernel.php(175): Illuminate\Pipeline\Pipeline->then()
#6 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Http/Kernel.php(144): Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel->sendRequestThroughRouter()
#7 /home/forge/app.notionpotion.io/public/index.php(51): Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel->handle()
#8 {main}
"}