open-notebook/docs/5-CONFIGURATION/environment-reference.md

Complete Environment Reference

Comprehensive list of all environment variables available in Open Notebook.

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API Configuration

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
API_URL	No	Auto-detected	URL where frontend reaches API (e.g., http://localhost:5055)
INTERNAL_API_URL	No	http://localhost:5055	Internal API URL for Next.js server-side proxying
API_CLIENT_TIMEOUT	No	300	Client timeout in seconds (how long to wait for API response)
OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD	No	None	Password to protect Open Notebook instance
HOSTNAME	No	0.0.0.0 (in Docker)	Network interface for Next.js to bind to. Default 0.0.0.0 ensures accessibility from reverse proxies

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AI Provider: OpenAI

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
OPENAI_API_KEY	If using OpenAI	None	OpenAI API key (starts with sk-)

Setup: Get from https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

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AI Provider: Anthropic (Claude)

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	If using Anthropic	None	Claude API key (starts with sk-ant-)

Setup: Get from https://console.anthropic.com/

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AI Provider: Google Gemini

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
GOOGLE_API_KEY	If using Google	None	Google API key for Gemini
GEMINI_API_BASE_URL	No	Default endpoint	Override Gemini API endpoint
VERTEX_PROJECT	If using Vertex AI	None	Google Cloud project ID
VERTEX_LOCATION	If using Vertex AI	us-east5	Vertex AI location
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS	If using Vertex AI	None	Path to service account JSON

Setup: Get from https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey

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AI Provider: Groq

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
GROQ_API_KEY	If using Groq	None	Groq API key (starts with gsk_)

Setup: Get from https://console.groq.com/keys

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AI Provider: Mistral

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
MISTRAL_API_KEY	If using Mistral	None	Mistral API key

Setup: Get from https://console.mistral.ai/

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AI Provider: DeepSeek

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	If using DeepSeek	None	DeepSeek API key

Setup: Get from https://platform.deepseek.com/

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AI Provider: xAI

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
XAI_API_KEY	If using xAI	None	xAI API key

Setup: Get from https://console.x.ai/

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AI Provider: Ollama (Local)

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
OLLAMA_API_BASE	If using Ollama	None	Ollama endpoint (e.g., http://localhost:11434)

Setup: Install from https://ollama.ai

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AI Provider: OpenRouter

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	If using OpenRouter	None	OpenRouter API key
OPENROUTER_BASE_URL	No	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1	OpenRouter endpoint

Setup: Get from https://openrouter.ai/

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AI Provider: OpenAI-Compatible

For self-hosted LLMs, LM Studio, or OpenAI-compatible endpoints:

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL	If using compatible	None	Base URL for OpenAI-compatible endpoint
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY	If using compatible	None	API key for endpoint
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL_LLM	No	Uses generic	Language model endpoint (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY_LLM	No	Uses generic	Language model API key (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL_EMBEDDING	No	Uses generic	Embedding endpoint (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY_EMBEDDING	No	Uses generic	Embedding API key (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL_STT	No	Uses generic	Speech-to-text endpoint (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY_STT	No	Uses generic	STT API key (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL_TTS	No	Uses generic	Text-to-speech endpoint (overrides generic)
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY_TTS	No	Uses generic	TTS API key (overrides generic)

Setup: For LM Studio, typically: OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL=http://localhost:1234/v1

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AI Provider: Azure OpenAI

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY	If using Azure	None	Azure OpenAI API key
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT	If using Azure	None	Azure OpenAI endpoint URL
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION	No	2024-12-01-preview	Azure OpenAI API version
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY_LLM	No	Uses generic	LLM-specific API key
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT_LLM	No	Uses generic	LLM-specific endpoint
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION_LLM	No	Uses generic	LLM-specific API version
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY_EMBEDDING	No	Uses generic	Embedding-specific API key
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT_EMBEDDING	No	Uses generic	Embedding-specific endpoint
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION_EMBEDDING	No	Uses generic	Embedding-specific API version

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AI Provider: VoyageAI (Embeddings)

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
VOYAGE_API_KEY	If using Voyage	None	Voyage AI API key (for embeddings)

Setup: Get from https://www.voyageai.com/

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Text-to-Speech (TTS)

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	If using ElevenLabs TTS	None	ElevenLabs API key for voice generation
TTS_BATCH_SIZE	No	5	Concurrent TTS requests (1-5, depends on provider)

Setup: Get from https://elevenlabs.io/

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Database: SurrealDB

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
SURREAL_URL	Yes	ws://surrealdb:8000/rpc	SurrealDB WebSocket connection URL
SURREAL_USER	Yes	root	SurrealDB username
SURREAL_PASSWORD	Yes	root	SurrealDB password
SURREAL_NAMESPACE	Yes	open_notebook	SurrealDB namespace
SURREAL_DATABASE	Yes	open_notebook	SurrealDB database name

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Database: Retry Configuration

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
SURREAL_COMMANDS_RETRY_ENABLED	No	true	Enable retries on failure
SURREAL_COMMANDS_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTS	No	3	Maximum retry attempts
SURREAL_COMMANDS_RETRY_WAIT_STRATEGY	No	exponential_jitter	Retry wait strategy (exponential_jitter/exponential/fixed/random)
SURREAL_COMMANDS_RETRY_WAIT_MIN	No	1	Minimum wait time between retries (seconds)
SURREAL_COMMANDS_RETRY_WAIT_MAX	No	30	Maximum wait time between retries (seconds)

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Database: Concurrency

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
SURREAL_COMMANDS_MAX_TASKS	No	5	Maximum concurrent database tasks

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LLM Timeouts

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
ESPERANTO_LLM_TIMEOUT	No	60	LLM inference timeout in seconds
ESPERANTO_SSL_VERIFY	No	true	Verify SSL certificates (false = development only)
ESPERANTO_SSL_CA_BUNDLE	No	None	Path to custom CA certificate bundle

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Content Extraction

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	No	None	Firecrawl API key for advanced web scraping
JINA_API_KEY	No	None	Jina AI API key for web extraction

Setup:

• Firecrawl: https://firecrawl.dev/
• Jina: https://jina.ai/

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Network / Proxy

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
HTTP_PROXY	No	None	HTTP proxy URL for outbound HTTP requests
HTTPS_PROXY	No	None	HTTPS proxy URL for outbound HTTPS requests
NO_PROXY	No	None	Comma-separated list of hosts to bypass proxy

Route all outbound HTTP requests through a proxy server. Useful for corporate/firewalled environments.

The underlying libraries (esperanto, content-core, podcast-creator) automatically detect proxy settings from these standard environment variables.

Affects:

• AI provider API calls (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, etc.)
• Content extraction from URLs (web scraping, YouTube transcripts)
• Podcast generation (LLM and TTS provider calls)

Format: http://[user:pass@]host:port or https://[user:pass@]host:port

Examples:

# Basic proxy
HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.com:8080
HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.com:8080

# Authenticated proxy
HTTP_PROXY=http://user:password@proxy.corp.com:8080
HTTPS_PROXY=http://user:password@proxy.corp.com:8080

# Bypass proxy for local hosts
NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1,.local

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Debugging & Monitoring

Variable	Required?	Default	Description
LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2	No	false	Enable LangSmith tracing
LANGCHAIN_ENDPOINT	No	https://api.smith.langchain.com	LangSmith endpoint
LANGCHAIN_API_KEY	No	None	LangSmith API key
LANGCHAIN_PROJECT	No	Open Notebook	LangSmith project name

Setup: https://smith.langchain.com/

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Environment Variables by Use Case

Minimal Setup (Cloud Provider)

OPENAI_API_KEY (or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc.)

Local Development (Ollama)

OLLAMA_API_BASE=http://localhost:11434

Production (OpenAI + Custom Domain)

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...
API_URL=https://mynotebook.example.com
SURREAL_USER=production_user
SURREAL_PASSWORD=secure_password

Self-Hosted Behind Reverse Proxy

OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL=http://localhost:1234/v1
API_URL=https://mynotebook.example.com

Corporate Environment (Behind Proxy)

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...
HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.com:8080
HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.com:8080
NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1

High-Performance Deployment

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...
SURREAL_COMMANDS_MAX_TASKS=10
TTS_BATCH_SIZE=5
API_CLIENT_TIMEOUT=600

Debugging

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...
LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2=true
LANGCHAIN_API_KEY=your-key

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Validation

Check if a variable is set:

# Check single variable
echo $OPENAI_API_KEY

# Check multiple
env | grep -E "OPENAI|API_URL"

# Print all config
env | grep -E "^[A-Z_]+=" | sort

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Notes

• Case-sensitive: OPENAI_API_KEY ≠ openai_api_key
• No spaces: OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-... not OPENAI_API_KEY = sk-proj-...
• Quote values: Use quotes for values with spaces: API_URL="http://my server:5055"
• Restart required: Changes take effect after restarting services
• Secrets: Don't commit API keys to git

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Quick Setup Checklist

• Choose AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, etc.)
• Get API key if cloud provider
• Add to .env or docker.env
• Set API_URL if behind reverse proxy
• Change SURREAL_PASSWORD in production
• Verify with: docker compose logs api | grep -i "error"
• Test in browser: Go to Settings → Models
• Try a test chat

Done!