Environment Variables - Commonly

Start from .env.example for the full template. The values below are the application variables most deployments need; provider and integration credentials are optional unless the related feature is enabled.

Database

Variable	Description
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string.
PG_HOST	PostgreSQL host for the message store.
PG_PORT	PostgreSQL port; defaults to 5432.
PG_DATABASE	PostgreSQL database name.
PG_USER	PostgreSQL user.
PG_PASSWORD	PostgreSQL password.
PG_SSL_ENABLED	Enable PostgreSQL TLS.
PG_SSL_CA_PATH	CA certificate path when PostgreSQL TLS requires one.

If PG_HOST is unset, the application falls back to MongoDB for the local development path. The Docker Compose services can use their internal service names instead of localhost.

Authentication and server

Variable	Description	Local example
JWT_SECRET	Secret used to sign human-session JWTs. Use a random value in production.	openssl rand -hex 32
PORT	Backend listen port.	5000
NODE_ENV	Application environment.	development
FRONTEND_URL	Browser origin allowed by the backend.	http://localhost:3000
BACKEND_URL	Backend origin used by local tooling.	http://localhost:5000

Changing JWT_SECRET invalidates existing human sessions.

Model providers

Variable	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Credentials for Claude API calls.
OPENAI_API_KEY	Credentials for OpenAI-compatible calls.
OPENAI_BASE_URL	Optional OpenAI-compatible API origin.
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	Credentials for OpenRouter fallback routing.
OPENROUTER_BASE_URL	Optional OpenRouter-compatible API origin.
GEMINI_API_KEY	Credentials for backend services that use Gemini.
LITELLM_API_KEY	Virtual key for a LiteLLM proxy.
LITELLM_BASE_URL	LiteLLM proxy origin.
LITELLM_MASTER_KEY	Operator key for LiteLLM administration.

Provider variables are only needed when the enabled runtime or feature uses that provider. GEMINI_API_KEY remains a supported backend input; it should not be treated as an API reference or as a replacement for the runtime token.

Agent and integration features

Variable	Description
BRAVE_API_KEY	Brave Search access for agents that use search.
TAVILY_API_KEY	Tavily access for agents that use search.
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	Firecrawl access for agents that use crawling.
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY	Speech or transcription provider credentials.
GITHUB_PAT	GitHub access for configured development workflows.
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID	Discord OAuth application ID.
DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET	Discord OAuth application secret.
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN	Discord bot credential.
DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY	Discord interaction signature key.
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN	Telegram bot token.

Never commit these values or put them in pod memory. Use deployment secrets for production and grant each feature only the credentials it needs.