kimi-code/docs/en/configuration/env-vars.md

Environment variables

Kimi Code CLI uses environment variables to override default paths, switch OAuth endpoints, and adjust runtime behavior. Most variables are read when the kimi process starts up; a few (such as the telemetry switch, the OAuth lock, and diagnostic logging) are read when the relevant subsystem initializes. Kimi's own variables use the KIMI_* prefix; in addition, the CLI also reads a number of standard system variables.

::: warning Note Provider credentials are not in this list: key variables such as KIMI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, and GOOGLE_API_KEY are not read automatically from process.env. They must be written into the [providers.<name>] section of config.toml (as api_key / base_url) or into the [providers.<name>.env] subtable; merely exporting them in your shell will not give a provider credentials automatically. See Configuration overrides and Providers for details. Exception: the KIMI_MODEL_* variables are an explicit channel that does read a model and its credentials from the shell — see Define a model from environment variables. :::

Core paths

KIMI_CODE_HOME overrides Kimi Code CLI's data root directory, defaulting to ~/.kimi-code. The CLI's own application data, kimi-core's config, the ripgrep cache, and OAuth credentials all land under this directory.

export KIMI_CODE_HOME="/path/to/custom/kimi-code"

For details on the data layout, see Data locations.

::: warning Note Make sure the directory is writable once you set it. Multiple kimi instances that share the same KIMI_CODE_HOME will share both the config and credential files. :::

Provider credential key names

The following key names appear in the [providers.<name>.env] subtable of config.toml, where they serve as fallback sources for the provider's api_key / base_url. The main kimi process does not read them directly from process.env; only the values keyed under a [providers.<name>.env] subtable are recognized by the provider clients. See Configuration overrides: provider credentials for the full resolution order.

Key name	Applicable provider	Purpose	Default
KIMI_API_KEY	Kimi / Moonshot	API key	None
KIMI_BASE_URL	Kimi / Moonshot	API base URL	https://api.moonshot.ai/v1
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic	API key	None
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	Anthropic	API base URL	Follows the Anthropic SDK default
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI (used by both openai and openai_responses)	API key	None
OPENAI_BASE_URL	OpenAI (used by both openai and openai_responses)	API base URL	https://api.openai.com/v1
GOOGLE_API_KEY	Google GenAI, Vertex AI (as a fallback for VERTEXAI_API_KEY)	API key	None
VERTEXAI_API_KEY	Vertex AI	API key (when not using ADC)	None
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT	Vertex AI	GCP project ID	None
GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION	Vertex AI	GCP region	None

For example, to pre-populate Kimi credentials in config.toml:

[providers.kimi.env]
KIMI_API_KEY = "sk-xxx"
KIMI_BASE_URL = "https://api.moonshot.ai/v1"

::: warning Note GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS (the path to a service-account JSON file) is read by the Google SDK itself from the shell environment, making it the only key in this group that goes through a system environment variable. It follows Google Cloud's standard ADC flow, and the CLI is not involved in resolving it. Every other key only takes effect when written into a [providers.<name>.env] subtable. :::

For the full description of provider types and fields, see Providers.

OAuth and the hosted service

The OAuth flow connects to Kimi's official authentication and hosted endpoints by default. The variables below can point them at a self-hosted or test environment.

Environment variable	Purpose	Default
KIMI_CODE_OAUTH_HOST	OAuth authentication host; takes the highest precedence	— (falls back to KIMI_OAUTH_HOST, then to the hardcoded default below)
KIMI_OAUTH_HOST	OAuth authentication host; used as a fallback for KIMI_CODE_OAUTH_HOST	— (falls back to the hardcoded default below)
KIMI_CODE_BASE_URL	Base URL of the hosted Kimi API, used for API calls after OAuth login	https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1

When neither KIMI_CODE_OAUTH_HOST nor KIMI_OAUTH_HOST is set, the OAuth authentication host uses the hardcoded constant https://auth.kimi.com.

::: warning Note KIMI_CODE_BASE_URL and the KIMI_BASE_URL from the previous section are two different variables: the former targets the OAuth-logged-in hosted service and defaults to kimi.com; the latter targets providers that use a Kimi API key directly and defaults to moonshot.ai. Distinguish them by use case. :::

Define a model from environment variables (KIMI_MODEL_*)

For testing you can make Kimi Code use a specific model without editing config.toml at all. When KIMI_MODEL_NAME is set, the CLI synthesizes one provider and one model alias from the KIMI_MODEL_* variables — in memory only, nothing is written back to config.toml — and selects it as the default model. These variables take priority over default_model in config.toml; a -m <alias> flag still wins for that launch.

Environment variable	Required	Purpose	Default
KIMI_MODEL_NAME	Yes (also the enable switch)	Model id sent to the API	—
KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY	Yes	API key	—
KIMI_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE	No	Provider type; one of kimi, anthropic, openai	kimi
KIMI_MODEL_BASE_URL	No	API base URL	kimi → https://api.moonshot.ai/v1; openai → https://api.openai.com/v1; anthropic → SDK default
KIMI_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE	No	Max context length in tokens (positive integer)	262144 (256K)
KIMI_MODEL_CAPABILITIES	No	Comma-separated capability tags (e.g. image_in,thinking); unioned with auto-detected capabilities	image_in,thinking
KIMI_MODEL_DISPLAY_NAME	No	Name shown in /model	Falls back to KIMI_MODEL_NAME
KIMI_MODEL_MAX_OUTPUT_SIZE	No	Per-request output cap (anthropic only)	Per-model default
KIMI_MODEL_REASONING_KEY	No	Reasoning field-name override (openai only)	Auto-detected
KIMI_MODEL_DEFAULT_THINKING	No	Default Thinking toggle for new sessions	Unset follows the global default (Thinking on)
KIMI_MODEL_THINKING_MODE	No	Thinking trigger policy; auto/on/off	—
KIMI_MODEL_THINKING_EFFORT	No	Thinking effort (e.g. low/medium/high/xhigh/max; available levels depend on the provider)	—
KIMI_MODEL_ADAPTIVE_THINKING	No	Force adaptive thinking (thinking: { type: 'adaptive' }) on or off, overriding the model-name version inference (anthropic only)	Inferred from the model name (Claude ≥ 4.6 uses adaptive)

The synthesized entries use the reserved keys __kimi_env__ (provider) and __kimi_env_model__ (model alias). When KIMI_MODEL_NAME is set but a required variable is missing or invalid, startup fails with a clear error.

Set KIMI_MODEL_ADAPTIVE_THINKING=true when a custom-named Anthropic-compatible endpoint backs a model that supports adaptive thinking but whose model name does not encode a parseable Claude version (so the automatic inference would otherwise fall back to budget-based thinking). Forcing it on for an endpoint that does not support adaptive thinking makes the API reject the request, so leave it unset unless you know the backing model supports it.

export KIMI_MODEL_NAME="kimi-for-coding"
export KIMI_MODEL_BASE_URL="https://api.example.com/v1"
export KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
export KIMI_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE="262144"
export KIMI_MODEL_CAPABILITIES="image_in,thinking"
kimi

Runtime switches

Environment variable	Purpose	Valid values / Default
KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY	Disable telemetry reporting	1, true, t, yes, y (case-insensitive)
KIMI_CODE_BACKGROUND_KEEP_ALIVE_ON_EXIT	Override [background].keep_alive_on_exit, controlling whether still-running background tasks are kept when the session closes	True values: 1, true, yes, on; false values: 0, false, no, off; when unset, reads config.toml, then falls back to true
KIMI_CODE_PLUGIN_MARKETPLACE_URL	Override the plugin marketplace JSON loaded by /plugins; useful for dev loopback servers, staging CDN files, or alternate marketplace directories	https://cdn.kimi.com/kimi-code/plugins/marketplace.json; also accepts http://, file:// URLs, and local paths
KIMI_SHELL_PATH	Override the absolute path to Git Bash (bash.exe) on Windows; only needed when auto-detection fails on Windows	None
KIMI_MODEL_MAX_COMPLETION_TOKENS	Explicit hard cap for max_completion_tokens in a single-step LLM request. When unset, Kimi Code uses the safe remaining context window for models with a known context size. Set to 0 or a negative value to disable clamping entirely. Currently effective only for providers of type kimi; for Anthropic and other providers, use [models.<alias>].max_output_size instead (see Config files)	Unset: computed from remaining context; unknown context falls back to loop_control.reserved_context_size, then 32000
KIMI_DISABLE_CRON	Disable the scheduled-task tools entirely. Set to 1 to make CronCreate reject new schedules and short-circuit the scheduler's tick loop; existing tasks remain on disk but never fire while the variable is set. See Scheduled tasks	1 to disable; unset by default

For example, to disable telemetry on a shared host:

export KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY="1"

KIMI_CODE_BACKGROUND_KEEP_ALIVE_ON_EXIT has higher priority than config.toml. For example, running KIMI_CODE_BACKGROUND_KEEP_ALIVE_ON_EXIT=0 kimi -p "..." temporarily requests stopping background tasks before this process exits, even if the config file sets keep_alive_on_exit = true.

Diagnostic logging

The variables below control kimi's diagnostic logs. Logs are written to two locations: the global diagnostic log at $KIMI_CODE_HOME/logs/kimi-code.log, and each session's own diagnostic log at <sessionDir>/logs/kimi-code.log (see Data locations for path details). All of these variables are read only once at process startup.

Environment variable	Purpose	Default
KIMI_LOG_LEVEL	Log level; one of off, error, warn, info, debug	info
KIMI_LOG_GLOBAL_MAX_BYTES	Maximum bytes per global log file	6291456 (6 MB)
KIMI_LOG_GLOBAL_FILES	Number of global log files to retain	5
KIMI_LOG_SESSION_MAX_BYTES	Maximum bytes per session log file	5242880 (5 MB)
KIMI_LOG_SESSION_FILES	Number of session log files to retain	3

When an integer variable fails to parse (non-positive integer or non-numeric), it silently falls back to the default value.

Clipboard bridge

KIMI_WSL_CLIPBOARD_IMAGE_PATH is injected automatically by the CLI when it spawns the WSL clipboard helper subprocess, used to pass a temporary image path. The variable is written into the PowerShell subprocess's environment and read by the subprocess script internally; the main kimi process does not read this variable itself. Setting it in an external shell has no effect on the main kimi process — users do not need to manage this variable manually.

System environment variables

Kimi Code CLI also reads a handful of standard system environment variables to detect the runtime environment and pick default behavior:

• HOME: the user's home directory, used to resolve the default data path.
• VISUAL, EDITOR: the executable invoked as the external editor, with VISUAL taking precedence.
• PATH: used to locate external dependencies such as rg and git.
• NO_COLOR: when set and non-empty, forces color and theme detection off, falling back to the dark theme. Follows the no-color.org convention.
• FORCE_COLOR: when set to "0", also disables color and theme detection, falling back to the dark theme.
• CI: when non-empty and not "0", disables theme detection and falls back to the dark theme; the telemetry module also reads this variable to mark the CI environment.
• LANG: used to tag the locale in the telemetry context (purely as a tag; it does not change CLI behavior).
• TERM_PROGRAM: used to detect terminal support for OSC 9 notifications (iTerm2, WezTerm, ghostty, WarpTerminal, etc.); also written into the telemetry context.
• TERM: used to detect terminal support for OSC 9 notifications (xterm-kitty, xterm-ghostty, etc.).
• TMUX: detects whether the CLI is running inside tmux, used for the terminal notification path.
• COLORFGBG: detects the terminal color scheme (dark / light).
• DISPLAY, WAYLAND_DISPLAY, XDG_SESSION_TYPE: detect a Linux graphical session, used by clipboard and image-related features. A XDG_SESSION_TYPE value of wayland is also treated as a Wayland session.
• WSL_DISTRO_NAME, WSLENV: detect whether the CLI is running inside WSL, used for the PowerShell-bridged clipboard fallback.
• TERMUX_VERSION: detects whether the CLI is running inside Termux.
• LOCALAPPDATA: used on Windows when probing for the Git Bash installation path.

These variables follow the usual conventions of each operating system; kimi only reads them and never modifies them.