Environment Variables

This document provides an explanation of the environment variables used in the big-AGI application.

All variables are optional; and UI options take precedence over backend environment variables, which take place over defaults. This file is kept in sync with ../src/server/env.mjs.

Setting Environment Variables

Environment variables can be set by creating a .env file in the root directory of the project.

The following is an example .env for copy-paste convenience:

# Database (Postgres)
POSTGRES_PRISMA_URL=
POSTGRES_URL_NON_POOLING=

# Database (MongoDB)
MDB_URI=

# LLMs
OPENAI_API_KEY=
OPENAI_API_HOST=
OPENAI_API_ORG_ID=
AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT=
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
ANTHROPIC_API_HOST=
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=
GEMINI_API_KEY=
GROQ_API_KEY=
LOCALAI_API_HOST=
LOCALAI_API_KEY=
MISTRAL_API_KEY=
OLLAMA_API_HOST=
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=
TOGETHERAI_API_KEY=

# Model Observability: Helicone
HELICONE_API_KEY=

# Browse
PUPPETEER_WSS_ENDPOINT=

# Search
GOOGLE_CLOUD_API_KEY=
GOOGLE_CSE_ID=

# Text-To-Speech: ElevenLabs
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=
ELEVENLABS_API_HOST=
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID=
# Text-To-Image: Prodia
PRODIA_API_KEY=

# Backend HTTP Basic Authentication (see `deploy-authentication.md` for turning on authentication)
HTTP_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME=
HTTP_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=

# Backend Analytics Flags
BACKEND_ANALYTICS=


# Frontend variables
NEXT_PUBLIC_GA4_MEASUREMENT_ID=
NEXT_PUBLIC_PLANTUML_SERVER_URL=

Backend Variables

These variables are used only by the server-side code, at runtime. Define them before running the nextjs local server (in development or cloud deployment), or pass them to Docker (--env-file or -e) when starting the container.

Database

To enable Chat Link Sharing, you need to connect the backend to a database. We currently support Postgres and MongoDB.

For Database configuration see deploy-database.md.

LLMs

The following variables when set will enable the corresponding LLMs on the server-side, without requiring the user to enter an API key

Variable	Description	Required
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	API key for OpenAI	Recommended
`OPENAI_API_HOST`	Changes the backend host for the OpenAI vendor, to enable platforms such as Helicone and CloudFlare AI Gateway	Optional
`OPENAI_API_ORG_ID`	Sets the "OpenAI-Organization" header field to support organization users	Optional
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT`	Azure OpenAI endpoint - host only, without the path	Optional, but if set `AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY` must also be set
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	Azure OpenAI API key, see config-azure-openai.md	Optional, but if set `AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT` must also be set
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	The API key for Anthropic	Optional
`ANTHROPIC_API_HOST`	Changes the backend host for the Anthropic vendor, to enable platforms such as config-aws-bedrock.md	Optional
`DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`	The API key for Deepseek AI	Optional
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	The API key for Google AI's Gemini	Optional
`GROQ_API_KEY`	The API key for Groq Cloud	Optional
`LOCALAI_API_HOST`	Sets the URL of the LocalAI server, or defaults to http://127.0.0.1:8080	Optional
`LOCALAI_API_KEY`	The (Optional) API key for LocalAI	Optional
`MISTRAL_API_KEY`	The API key for Mistral	Optional
`OLLAMA_API_HOST`	Changes the backend host for the Ollama vendor. See config-local-ollama.md
`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	The API key for OpenRouter	Optional
`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`	The API key for Perplexity	Optional
`TOGETHERAI_API_KEY`	The API key for Together AI	Optional

LLM Observability: Helicone

Helicone provides observability to your LLM calls. It is a paid service, with a generous free tier. It is currently supported for:

Anthropic: by setting the Helicone API key, Helicone is automatically activated
OpenAI: you also need to set OPENAI_API_HOST to oai.hconeai.com, to enable routing

Variable	Description
`HELICONE_API_KEY`	The API key for Helicone

Features

Enable the app to Talk, Draw, and Google things up.

Variable	Description
Text-To-Speech	ElevenLabs is a high quality speech synthesis service
`ELEVENLABS_API_KEY`	ElevenLabs API Key - used for calls, etc.
`ELEVENLABS_API_HOST`	Custom host for ElevenLabs
`ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID`	Default voice ID for ElevenLabs
Text-To-Image	Prodia is a reliable image generation service
`PRODIA_API_KEY`	Prodia API Key - used with '/imagine ...'
Google Custom Search	Google Programmable Search Engine produces links to pages
`GOOGLE_CLOUD_API_KEY`	Google Cloud API Key, used with the '/react' command - Link to GCP
`GOOGLE_CSE_ID`	Google Custom/Programmable Search Engine ID - Link to PSE
Browse
`PUPPETEER_WSS_ENDPOINT`	Puppeteer WebSocket endpoint - used for browsing (pade downloadeing), etc.
Backend
`BACKEND_ANALYTICS`	Semicolon-separated list of analytics flags (see backend.analytics.ts). Flags: `domain` logs the responding domain.
`HTTP_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME`	See the Authentication guide. Username for HTTP Basic Authentication.
`HTTP_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD`	Password for HTTP Basic Authentication.

Frontend Variables

The value of these variables are passed to the frontend (Web UI) - make sure they do not contain secrets.

Variable	Description
`NEXT_PUBLIC_GA4_MEASUREMENT_ID`	The measurement ID for Google Analytics 4. (see deploy-analytics)
`NEXT_PUBLIC_PLANTUML_SERVER_URL`	The URL of the PlantUML server, used for rendering UML diagrams. (code in RederCode.tsx)

Important: these variables must be set at build time, which is required by Next.js to pass them to the frontend. This is in contrast to the backend variables, which can be set when starting the local server/container.

For a higher level overview of backend code and environment customization, see the big-AGI Customization guide.