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FriendAssKicker edited this page Jun 26, 2026 · 1 revision

Environment Variables

Complete reference for all environment variables used by the backend and frontend.

Backend (apps/backend/.env)

Core Server

Variable Required Default Description
PORT No 6767 HTTP server port
NODE_ENV No development development or production
CLIENT_URL No http://localhost:5173 Frontend URL (used for Zoom OAuth redirects)

MongoDB

Variable Required Default Description
MONGODB_URI Yes -- MongoDB connection string (mongodb:// or mongodb+srv://)

JWT and Authentication

Variable Required Default Description
JWT_SECRET Yes -- Min 32 characters. Generate: openssl rand -hex 32
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET No Same as JWT_SECRET Dedicated refresh token secret
JWT_EXPIRES_IN No 7d Access token TTL (e.g., 15m, 1h, 7d)

Encryption and OAuth

Variable Required Default Description
ENCRYPTION_MASTER_KEY No Falls back to JWT_SECRET AES-GCM key for encrypting Zoom tokens, TOTP. Generate: openssl rand -hex 32
OAUTH_STATE_SECRET No Falls back to JWT_SECRET HMAC key for OAuth state signing. Generate: openssl rand -hex 32

Redis

Variable Required Default Description
REDIS_URL No -- Upstash REST endpoint. Enables cross-instance cache
REDIS_TOKEN Conditional -- Required when REDIS_URL is set
REDIS_TCP_URL No -- BullMQ TCP URL. Required for document processing queue

Sentry

Variable Required Default Description
SENTRY_DSN No -- Sentry project DSN for error tracking

Embedding Providers

Variable Required Default Description
HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY No -- HuggingFace Inference API key
EMBEDDING_API_KEY No -- OpenAI-compatible embedding API key
EMBEDDING_BASE_URL No -- OpenAI-compatible embedding base URL
EMBEDDING_PROVIDER No local Provider: local, huggingface, openai, custom
EMBEDDING_MODEL No mixedbread-ai/mxbai-embed-large-v1 Embedding model name
EMBEDDING_DIMENSIONS No 1024 Embedding vector dimensions

AI Chat Providers

At least one provider must be configured. Priority order: Anthropic, OpenAI, XAI, Gemini, MiniMax, Custom.

Variable Required Default Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY No -- Anthropic Claude API key (recommended)
ANTHROPIC_MODEL No claude-3-5-sonnet-latest Anthropic model
OPENAI_API_KEY No -- OpenAI GPT API key
OPENAI_MODEL No gpt-4o-mini OpenAI model
XAI_API_KEY No -- XAI Grok API key
XAI_MODEL No grok-3 XAI model
GEMINI_API_KEY No -- Google Gemini API key
GEMINI_MODEL No gemini-1.5-flash Gemini model
MINIMAX_API_KEY No -- MiniMax API key
CUSTOM_API_KEY No -- Custom provider API key
CUSTOM_BASE_URL No http://localhost:11434/v1 Custom provider base URL

Per-Pipeline AI Overrides

Variable Required Default Description
FAQ_AUDIT_PROVIDER No Uses global priority Provider for FAQ audit pipeline
FAQ_AUDIT_MODEL No Uses provider default Model for FAQ audit pipeline
AUTO_ANSWER_PROVIDER No Uses global priority Provider for auto-answer pipeline
AUTO_ANSWER_MODEL No Uses provider default Model for auto-answer pipeline

Zoom OAuth

Variable Required Default Description
ZOOM_CLIENT_ID No -- Zoom OAuth app client ID
ZOOM_CLIENT_SECRET Conditional -- Required when ZOOM_CLIENT_ID is set
ZOOM_REDIRECT_URI No -- Must match Zoom app redirect URL setting exactly
ZOOM_TOPIC_BLACKLIST No -- Comma-separated regexes for skipping meetings
ZOOM_WEBHOOK_SECRET_TOKEN Conditional -- Required in non-development environments

Image Storage

Variable Required Default Description
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME No -- Legacy Cloudinary cloud name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY No -- Legacy Cloudinary API key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET No -- Legacy Cloudinary API secret
GCS_BUCKET Conditional -- Google Cloud Storage bucket name
GCS_PUBLIC_HOST No -- Public hostname for GCS assets
GCS_ALLOWED_SUBFOLDERS No avatar,posts Allowed upload subfolders
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS No -- GCP service account key path (local dev only)

Discord Bot

Variable Required Default Description
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN No -- Bot token from Discord Developer Portal
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID No -- Application ID from Discord Developer Portal
DISCORD_GUILD_ID No -- Discord server (guild) ID
DISCORD_ADMIN_USER_IDS No -- Comma-separated Discord user IDs for admin commands
DISCORD_NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID No -- Channel ID for bot notifications
DISCORD_PUBLIC_CHANNEL_ID No -- Channel ID for public announcements
INTERNAL_API_KEY No -- Shared secret for bot-to-API admin calls
PUBLIC_URL No http://localhost:6767 Backend URL the bot uses for API calls
PUBLIC_BASE_URL No -- Public URL for invite links
ADMIN_DISCORD_LOG_CHANNEL No -- Channel ID for admin audit events
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL No -- Webhook URL for ALERT/ERROR log forwarding
DISCORD_ADMIN_PASSPHRASE Conditional adminpassphrase Required in production
ADMIN_BCRYPT_COST No 12 bcrypt cost factor for passphrase hashing

Document Pipeline

Variable Required Default Description
DOCUMENT_INSIGHT_AUTO_PROMOTE_THRESHOLD No 3 Search count before auto-promoting an insight to FAQ

Infisical (Production)

Variable Required Default Description
INFISICAL_TOKEN No -- Infisical service token (Docker/production only)
INFISICAL_ENVIRONMENT No -- Infisical environment name
INFISICAL_PROJECT_ID No -- Infisical project ID
INFISICAL_SECRET_PATH No -- Infisical secret path

Frontend (apps/frontend/.env)

Variable Required Default Description
VITE_API_URL No (empty) Backend API URL. Leave empty for same-origin deployment
VITE_PUBLIC_URL No window.location.origin Frontend public URL for admin links

In a single-container deployment (backend serves frontend), both can be left empty. The frontend uses relative paths (/csfaq/api) which resolve to the same server.

Important Notes

  • Values set to # in .env mean "unconfigured". The backend treats # values as undefined.
  • The server will NOT start without MONGODB_URI and JWT_SECRET.
  • In production, DISCORD_ADMIN_PASSPHRASE is required.
  • In non-development environments, ZOOM_WEBHOOK_SECRET_TOKEN is required.
  • See Production URL Checklist for what to update when deploying to a new domain.

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