diff --git a/electron/main/init.ts b/electron/main/init.ts
index 5602dc1cb..a4adad68e 100644
--- a/electron/main/init.ts
+++ b/electron/main/init.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import log from 'electron-log';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import * as http from 'http';
 import * as net from 'net';
+import os from 'os';
 import path from 'path';
 import { promisify } from 'util';
 import { PromiseReturnType } from './install-deps';
@@ -35,6 +36,52 @@ import {
 
 const execAsync = promisify(exec);
 
+const DEFAULT_SERVER_URL = 'https://dev.eigent.ai/api';
+
+function readEnvValue(filePath: string, key: string): string | undefined {
+  try {
+    if (!fs.existsSync(filePath)) return undefined;
+    const content = fs.readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
+    const lines = content.split(/\r?\n/);
+    const line = lines.find((l) => {
+      let trimmed = l.trim();
+      if (!trimmed || trimmed.startsWith('#')) return false;
+      // Handle lines with 'export' prefix (e.g. export SERVER_URL=value)
+      if (trimmed.startsWith('export ')) {
+        trimmed = trimmed.slice(7).trim();
+      }
+      return trimmed.startsWith(`${key}=`);
+    });
+    if (!line) return undefined;
+    let raw = line.trim();
+    // Strip 'export ' prefix before extracting value
+    if (raw.startsWith('export ')) {
+      raw = raw.slice(7).trim();
+    }
+    let value = raw.slice(key.length + 1).trim();
+    // Strip surrounding quotes (single or double)
+    if (
+      (value.startsWith('"') && value.endsWith('"')) ||
+      (value.startsWith("'") && value.endsWith("'"))
+    ) {
+      value = value.slice(1, -1);
+    }
+    return value;
+  } catch (error) {
+    log.warn(`Failed to read ${key} from ${filePath}:`, error);
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+function buildLocalServerUrl(proxyUrl: string | undefined): string | undefined {
+  if (!proxyUrl) return undefined;
+  const trimmed = proxyUrl.trim().replace(/\/+$/, '');
+  if (!trimmed) return undefined;
+  // Avoid double /api suffix
+  if (trimmed.endsWith('/api')) return trimmed;
+  return `${trimmed}/api`;
+}
+
 // helper function to get main window
 export function getMainWindow(): BrowserWindow | null {
   const windows = BrowserWindow.getAllWindows();
@@ -183,10 +230,57 @@ export async function startBackend(
   }
 
   const uvEnv = getUvEnv(currentVersion);
+  const globalEnvPath = path.join(os.homedir(), '.eigent', '.env');
+
+  const envProxyEnabled = process.env.VITE_USE_LOCAL_PROXY === 'true';
+  const envProxyUrl = process.env.VITE_PROXY_URL;
+  let resolvedServerUrl: string | undefined;
+  let resolvedSource = 'default';
+
+  if (envProxyEnabled) {
+    resolvedServerUrl = buildLocalServerUrl(envProxyUrl);
+    if (resolvedServerUrl) {
+      resolvedSource = 'process.env VITE_*';
+    } else {
+      log.warn('VITE_USE_LOCAL_PROXY is true but VITE_PROXY_URL is empty or invalid, ignoring');
+    }
+  }
+
+  const devServerUrl = process.env.VITE_DEV_SERVER_URL;
+  if (!resolvedServerUrl && devServerUrl) {
+    const devEnvPath = path.join(app.getAppPath(), '.env.development');
+    const devProxyEnabled = readEnvValue(devEnvPath, 'VITE_USE_LOCAL_PROXY') === 'true';
+    const devProxyUrl = readEnvValue(devEnvPath, 'VITE_PROXY_URL');
+    if (devProxyEnabled) {
+      resolvedServerUrl = buildLocalServerUrl(devProxyUrl);
+      if (resolvedServerUrl) {
+        resolvedSource = `dev env file (${devEnvPath})`;
+      } else {
+        log.warn(`VITE_USE_LOCAL_PROXY is true in ${devEnvPath} but VITE_PROXY_URL is empty or invalid, ignoring`);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (!resolvedServerUrl && process.env.SERVER_URL) {
+    resolvedServerUrl = process.env.SERVER_URL;
+    resolvedSource = 'process.env SERVER_URL';
+  }
+
+  if (!resolvedServerUrl) {
+    const serverUrlFromFile = readEnvValue(globalEnvPath, 'SERVER_URL');
+    if (serverUrlFromFile) {
+      resolvedServerUrl = serverUrlFromFile;
+      resolvedSource = `global env file (${globalEnvPath})`;
+    }
+  }
+
+  const serverUrl = resolvedServerUrl || DEFAULT_SERVER_URL;
+  log.info(`Backend SERVER_URL resolved to: ${serverUrl} (source: ${resolvedSource})`);
+
   const env = {
     ...process.env,
     ...uvEnv,
-    SERVER_URL: 'https://dev.eigent.ai/api',
+    SERVER_URL: serverUrl,
     PYTHONIOENCODING: 'utf-8',
     PYTHONUNBUFFERED: '1',
     npm_config_cache: npmCacheDir,