Laravel 11 Simplest Gate possible but returning always unauthorized

I’m trying to make a gate so only some users are authorized to make certain API calls, but before that I have to at least set up a gate properly which I can’t seem to do.

Here I set up the gate:

AppServiceProvider.php

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Register any application services.
     */
    public function register(): void
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     */
    public function boot(): void
    {
        
        
        Gate::define('alwaysTrue', function () {
            return true;
        });
    }
}

Here is the controller where I use the gate:

public function materiales_pedido($pedido_id)
{
    if (! Gate::allows('alwaysTrue')) {
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Unauthorized'], 401);
    }

    $results = [];
return $results;
}

The actual function of the controller is longer but I think its irrelevant as its just some SQL queries and it works when I remove the gate part.

Here is my api.php route

Route::get('/materiales_pedido/{pedido_id}', [PedidosConsultas::class, 'materiales_pedido']);

I’m using sanctum SPA session bassed authentication for my web app.
Even if I add ->middleware('auth:sanctum'); to the route the error continues.

This is my axios call:

const fetchMateriales = async () => {


    try {
        await axios.get('/sanctum/csrf-cookie');
        console.log(pedidoId);

        const response = await axios.get(`http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/materiales_pedido/${pedidoId}`, {
            headers: {
                'content-type': 'application/json'
            }
        });
        piezas.value = response.data;
        piezas.value.forEach(pieza => {
            pieza.cantidad_state = 'max';
        });

        console.log(piezas.value);

    } catch (error) {
        console.error('There was an error fetching the materialesPedidos:', error);
    }
};

This is my logging in authentication function:

 public function authenticate(Request $request){
        $credentials = $request->validate([
            'email' => ['required', 'email'],
            'password' => ['required'],
        ]);

        if (Auth::attempt($credentials)) {
            $user = auth()->user();
            $emailVerified = !is_null($user->email_verified_at);
            $request->session()->regenerate();

            return response()->json([
                'success' => true,
                'email_verified' => $emailVerified,
            ],200);        }

        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'The provided credentials do not match our records.',
        ], 401);
    }

Not really sure what it could be I also tried deleting all caches and chatgpt didn’t help much with this. I haven’t changed any middleware that comes with laravel 11 and cant even see them because they are hidden now in Larav11.

–IMPORTANT —
When I change the route from api.php to web.php It works IF I access that web.php route DIRECTLY through my browser but if I access that web.php route TROUGH AXIOS I still get the same 401 error,
but I’m not that experienced to know what would cause this as I’m a student trying to learn fullstack.

I would very much appreaciate your help.

I tried chaining the route from api.php to web.php but it gives mixed results depending if I access it directly or through axios.