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Chat environment variables

Every variable obleth-chat reads, with its default.

4 min readUpdated for Chat 0.5.2Edit on GitHub

Chat reads its configuration from the environment at startup. npm run start:api loads .env first; the binary itself does not. .env.example in the repository lists the common ones with comments.

VariableDefaultMeaning
OBLETH_CHAT_DATABASE_URLrequiredPostgres URL for a database Chat owns
OBLETH_CHAT_ORIGINhttp://localhost:8085The exact URL people open. Must be HTTPS unless it's loopback
OBLETH_CHAT_LISTEN127.0.0.1:8085Address and port to listen on
OBLETH_CHAT_STATIC_DIRwebDirectory of the web app. The image sets /app/web
OBLETH_CHAT_DB_CONNECTIONS20Postgres connections per replica, 2 to 200
OBLETH_CHAT_MAX_STREAMS128Concurrent responses per replica, 1 to 4096
OBLETH_CHAT_SESSION_HOURS12Session lifetime
OBLETH_CHAT_LOGIN_RATE_PER_MINUTE300Sign-in requests per client address per minute, 1 to 10000
OBLETH_CHAT_TRUSTED_PROXYunsetProxy addresses or CIDRs whose X-Forwarded-For is trusted; loopback for the same host. See Reverse proxies
OBLETH_CHAT_BOOTSTRAP_USERNAMEunsetFirst administrator, created only when there are no users. Set with the password, or neither; Compose and .env.example use admin
OBLETH_CHAT_BOOTSTRAP_PASSWORDunsetIts password, at least 12 characters. Remove after setup
OBLETH_CHAT_GATEWAY_URLunsetGateway origin, without /v1. Set with the signing key, or neither
OBLETH_CHAT_GATEWAY_SIGNING_KEY_FILEunsetRSA private key Chat signs gateway tokens with
OBLETH_CHAT_GATEWAY_ISSUEROBLETH_CHAT_ORIGINiss of gateway tokens
OBLETH_CHAT_GATEWAY_AUDIENCEoblethaud of gateway tokens
OBLETH_CHAT_ADMIN_GATEWAY_URLunsetGateway dashboard link shown to administrators
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_ISSUERunsetOIDC issuer URL. Set with client ID and secret, or none
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_CLIENT_IDunsetOIDC client ID
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRETunsetOIDC client secret
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_ALLOW_SIGNUPfalseCreate accounts on first OIDC sign-in
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_GROUP_CLAIMgroupsID-token claim to map groups from
OBLETH_CHAT_OIDC_GROUP_MAPunsetJSON map of claim values to arrays of Chat group UUIDs
OBLETH_CHAT_DEFAULT_GROUP_IDSunsetComma-separated group UUIDs for every new account
OBLETH_CHAT_S3_ENDPOINTunsetTurns on Knowledge and the Library, and keeps attachments and generated images in the bucket. S3-compatible endpoint
OBLETH_CHAT_S3_BUCKETunsetBucket for Knowledge documents, attachments and generated images
OBLETH_CHAT_S3_ACCESS_KEY_IDunsetBucket access key
OBLETH_CHAT_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYunsetBucket secret key
OBLETH_CHAT_S3_REGIONautoSigning region
OBLETH_CHAT_EMBEDDING_MODELqwen3-embedding-8bDefault gateway embedding model for Knowledge; administrators can change it in Settings
OBLETH_CHAT_EMBEDDING_QUERY_PREFIXQwen3-Embedding's instructionText put before each search. Empty for none
OBLETH_CHAT_EMBEDDING_DOCUMENT_PREFIXemptyText put before each stored passage
OBLETH_CHAT_KNOWLEDGE_USER_MB2048Knowledge storage per person, in MiB
OBLETH_CHAT_PDFTOTEXTpdftotextPath to pdftotext
OBLETH_CHAT_UNZIPunzipPath to unzip
OBLETH_CHAT_WORKSPACESautooff turns workspaces and the browser off. With auto, they're on when Chat runs in Kubernetes with a service account token
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_NAMESPACEChat's namespaceNamespace for workspace and browser pods
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_IMAGEthis release's workspace imageWorkspace image; pin it by digest in production
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_SLOTS8Most workspace and browser pods running at once
OBLETH_CHAT_PREVIEW_DOMAINunsetWildcard domain for workspace previews; unset, workspaces run without previews
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_ACCESSadminsWho gets workspaces: admins or everyone
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_RUNTIME_CLASSunsetRuntimeClass for workspace pods
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_STORAGE_CLASScluster defaultStorageClass for workspace volumes
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_STORAGE10GiWorkspace volume size and disk cap
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_CPU2Workspace CPU limit
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_MEMORY4GiWorkspace memory limit
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_IDLE_MINUTES60Stop idle workspace pods after this long
OBLETH_CHAT_SANDBOX_RETENTION_MINUTES10080Delete a workspace volume this long after last use
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSERonoff leaves out the browser
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSER_IMAGEthis release's browser imageBrowser image; pin it by digest in production
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSER_CPU1Browser CPU limit
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSER_MEMORY1GiBrowser memory limit
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSER_STORAGE1GiBrowser profile volume size
OBLETH_CHAT_BROWSER_IDLE_MINUTES15Stop idle browsers after this long
OBLETH_CHAT_KUBE_APIin-clusterKubernetes API URL, for running Chat outside the cluster
OBLETH_CHAT_KUBE_TOKEN_FILEServiceAccount tokenToken for that API
OBLETH_CHAT_KUBE_CA_FILEServiceAccount CACA for that API
OBLETH_CHAT_CONNECTIONSallWhich connections people can add: all, mcp (no clusters) or off. See Enable connections
OBLETH_CHAT_AUTO_MODEallowedWhether a chat may switch to Auto mode, where tools run without asking: allowed or off
OBLETH_CHAT_CONNECTIONS_ALLOW_PRIVATEfalseLet people's own connections reach private addresses. Development only
OBLETH_CHAT_BACKUP_STATUS_DIRunsetDirectory with lastSuccess and bytes files for backup metrics
OBLETH_CHAT_METRICS_TOKENunsetBearer token /metrics requires; unset, /metrics is open
RUST_LOGunsetLog filter, such as obleth_chat=info