Environment Variables¶

Environment variables are managed per-service in .env files. The ./jarvis init command generates these files with appropriate defaults and auto-generated credentials.

Cross-Service Variables¶

These variables are used by multiple services:

Variable	Used By	Description
`DATABASE_URL`	auth, command-center, recipes, config-service, notifications	PostgreSQL connection string (e.g., `postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/dbname`)
`SECRET_KEY`	auth	JWT signing key (HS256). Must be the same across all services that validate JWTs.
`ADMIN_API_KEY`	command-center	Protects admin endpoints (node management, training jobs). Sent as a header or query parameter.
`JARVIS_AUTH_BASE_URL`	ocr, command-center, logs, others	URL of the auth service for validating app-to-app and node credentials.
`JARVIS_CONFIG_URL`	all services	URL of `jarvis-config-service` for service discovery.
`JARVIS_CONFIG_URL_STYLE`	config-service	URL format returned by config-service: `dockerized` (container names) or `host` (localhost/host.docker.internal).
`DOCKER_HOST_ALIAS`	config-service	Override the hostname Docker containers use to reach the host. Default: `host.docker.internal`.
`JARVIS_NETWORK_MODE`	jarvis CLI	Network mode: `bridge` (default), `host`, or `standalone`.

App-to-App Credentials¶

Every service that calls another service needs app-to-app credentials:

Variable	Description
`JARVIS_APP_ID`	This service's app ID (registered in jarvis-auth)
`JARVIS_APP_KEY`	This service's app key (secret, registered in jarvis-auth)

These are generated by ./jarvis init and written to each service's .env file. Services send them as X-Jarvis-App-Id and X-Jarvis-App-Key headers when calling other services.

Infrastructure¶

Variable	Default	Description
`POSTGRES_USER`	`postgres`	PostgreSQL superuser name
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	(generated)	PostgreSQL superuser password
`POSTGRES_HOST`	`jarvis-postgres`	PostgreSQL hostname (container name in bridge mode)
`POSTGRES_PORT`	`5432`	PostgreSQL port
`REDIS_URL`	`redis://jarvis-redis:6379`	Redis connection string
`MINIO_ENDPOINT`	`jarvis-minio:9000`	MinIO object storage endpoint
`MINIO_ACCESS_KEY`	(generated)	MinIO access key
`MINIO_SECRET_KEY`	(generated)	MinIO secret key
`MQTT_ALLOW_ANON`	`false` (fresh install) / `true` (upgrading a pre-existing `.env`)	Mosquitto `allow_anonymous` toggle. The admin and installer generators lock fresh installs (`false`); regenerating `.env` for an install that predates this setting forces `true` (the transition window) unless the key is already present, in which case the existing value is preserved. An explicit operator override always wins. Compose's own fallback if the key is ever missing is `${MQTT_ALLOW_ANON:-true}`. See Command Center: MQTT Broker Auth.

Admin / Installer¶

Variable	Default	Description
`DOCKER_SOCKET`	`/var/run/docker.sock`	Docker socket path. Override for TrueNAS or non-standard setups where the socket is in a different location.

Per-Service Variables¶

jarvis-command-center¶

Variable	Description
`ADMIN_API_KEY`	Admin endpoint protection
`LLM_PROXY_URL`	URL of jarvis-llm-proxy-api
`WHISPER_API_URL`	URL of jarvis-whisper-api
`TTS_BASE_URL`	URL of jarvis-tts
`NOTIFICATIONS_URL`	URL of jarvis-notifications

jarvis-llm-proxy-api¶

Variable	Description
`MODEL_PATH`	Path to the model file or directory
`MODELS_DIR`	Directory for LLM model files. Default: `./.models` relative to the compose directory. Used by the admin dashboard to list and download models.
`BACKEND`	Inference backend: `mlx`, `gguf`, `vllm`
`CONTEXT_LENGTH`	Maximum context window size

jarvis-tts¶

Variable	Description
`TTS_PORT`	API port (default: 7707)
`TTS_PROVIDER`	Initial provider (`piper` or `kokoro`); see `tts.provider` setting for runtime switching
`TTS_DEFAULT_VOICE`	Piper ONNX voice name (default: `en_GB-alan-low`)
`TTS_KOKORO_VOICE`	Kokoro voice ID (default: `bm_george`)
`TTS_KOKORO_SPEED`	Kokoro speech speed multiplier (default: `1.0`)
`HF_HOME`	Cache dir for Kokoro voice weights (default: `/app/models/hf_cache`)

jarvis-notifications¶

Variable	Description
`RELAY_URL`	URL of jarvis-notifications-relay for push delivery

jarvis-ocr-service¶

Variable	Description
`OCR_BACKEND`	OCR provider: `apple_vision` (macOS), `tesseract`, `easyocr`

jarvis-node-mobile (Mobile App)¶

Expo public variables are baked into the app bundle at build time via EAS profiles (eas.json).

Variable	Default	Description
`EXPO_PUBLIC_MANUAL_CONFIG_URL`	`""` (unset)	DEV_MODE only. Baked config-service URL used as a Tier-0 fallback in config discovery when AsyncStorage has no manually-pinned URL (e.g. a fresh `clearState` e2e build in CI that can't mDNS-sweep the stack). Set to `http://localhost:7700` in the `development-e2e` EAS profile. A UI-pinned URL always takes precedence. Inert in production builds (`DEV_MODE` is false and production profiles never set this variable).
`EXPO_PUBLIC_DEV_MODE`	`"false"`	Enables developer-only UI features (Simulator Mode panel, baked config URL fallback). Set to `"true"` in `development` and `development-e2e` EAS profiles.
`EXPO_PUBLIC_PANTRY_URL`	`""`	Override URL for the pantry store service. Falls back to config-service discovery if unset.
`EXPO_PUBLIC_SIMULATED_NODE_IP`	`"127.0.0.1"`	IP address of the simulated node in Simulator Mode (DEV_MODE only).
`EXPO_PUBLIC_NODE_PORT`	`"8080"`	Port for communicating with the node in Simulator Mode (DEV_MODE only).

Network Egress & Offline Mode¶

Jarvis is offline by default; every outbound-internet capability is opt-in. These variables enable specific external traffic. Full guide: Network Egress & Offline Mode.

Variable	Service	Default	Enables
`JARVIS_ALLOW_UPDATES`	jarvis-admin	`false`	GitHub update check on the dashboard + self-update `/apply`. Also honored via `~/.jarvis/admin.json` (`allowUpdates`).
`JARVIS_ALLOW_UPDATES`	jarvis-node-setup	`false`	Node OTA self-update (download + apply a release). Also settable as `allow_updates` in the node's `config.json`.
`JARVIS_WAKE_WORD_MODEL_AUTODOWNLOAD_ENABLED`	jarvis-node-setup	`false`	Downloading the openWakeWord model from GitHub on boot. Also `wake_word_model_autodownload_enabled` in `config.json`.
`WHISPER_ALLOW_MODEL_AUTODOWNLOAD`	jarvis-whisper-api	`false`	Auto-downloading a Whisper model from HuggingFace when none exists locally. DB setting: `whisper.allow_model_autodownload`.
`TTS_PROVIDER`	jarvis-tts	`piper`	Selecting the TTS backend. `piper` is local (no egress); `kokoro` downloads weights from HuggingFace. DB setting: `tts.provider`.

DB-backed egress toggles

Some egress controls are runtime settings (not env vars): web_search.enabled and web_scraping.allow_external (household), and updates.allow_check (command-center, gates the node-update GitHub check). Manage these via the mobile app / settings server. See the offline-mode guide.

Environment Files¶

.env files are gitignored and never committed
.env.example files show required variables with placeholder values
./jarvis init generates .env files from templates with real credentials
Use ./jarvis init --force to regenerate all .env files

Settings Service vs Environment Variables¶

Runtime-configurable settings (like LLM model selection, prompt provider) are managed through jarvis-settings-server and stored in PostgreSQL, not in environment variables. Environment variables are for infrastructure configuration that requires a service restart to change.