Reference
Environment Variables
Complete reference for every environment variable recognised by answerLoops.
This is the complete list of environment variables answerLoops reads. Use it to look up a name, find out whether it is required, and see what it controls. To see the few you need to start, read Minimum to boot in the self-hosting guide.
Set variables in your .env file (local) or in your hosting provider's environment configuration (production).
| Marker | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Required | Must be set for a working deployment |
| Optional | Has a default, or only switches on an extra feature |
| Managed service only | Used only on answerLoops' own hosted service; self-hosters leave it unset |
answerLoops uses Auth.js v5. The variable names are AUTH_SECRET and AUTH_URL, not NEXTAUTH_SECRET / NEXTAUTH_URL. If you are migrating from an older deployment, rename them. (NEXTAUTH_URL is still honoured as a fallback for AUTH_URL when building links in emails and OAuth callbacks.)
Required for every install
Database, session secret, public URL, encryption key, and Google sign-in.
AI provider
An OpenAI key powers drafts and search out of the box.
Channels
Discord, Slack, Google Chat, GitHub, Telegram and email.
Core and access
Core (required)
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
DATABASE_URL | Required. PostgreSQL connection string, e.g. postgresql://<user>:<password>@<host>:5432/<database> |
DIRECT_DATABASE_URL | Optional. Non-pooled connection string used only for LISTEN/NOTIFY (configuration hot-reload, live team and dashboard updates). Needed whenever DATABASE_URL points at a pooled connection (a provider's pooled endpoint, PgBouncer, etc.); otherwise it falls back to DATABASE_URL |
AUTH_SECRET | Required. Random 32-byte secret for the Auth.js v5 session and for channel connect flows. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32 |
AUTH_URL | Required. Full public URL of your deployment, e.g. https://answerloops.com. Used for sign-in callbacks and links in emails |
ENCRYPTION_KEY | Required in production (NODE_ENV=production). 32-byte hex key used to encrypt stored credentials at rest. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32 |
Sign-in (required)
Google is the only sign-in provider answerLoops configures. Both variables are required.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
AUTH_GOOGLE_ID | Google OAuth client ID |
AUTH_GOOGLE_SECRET | Google OAuth client secret |
Callback URL to register: https://<your-domain>/api/auth/callback/google
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID and SLACK_CLIENT_ID below are separate: they power the "connect a Discord server" and "Add to Slack" flows inside the product, not sign-in. There is no Discord, Slack or GitHub provider for dashboard sign-in.
Networking
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
TRUST_PROXY_HOPS | Optional. Number of proxies between the public internet and the app. Defaults to 1. Set to 2 for Cloudflare in front of a platform load balancer |
ORIGIN_VERIFY_SECRET | Optional. A shared secret between your CDN or edge proxy and the app. Requires a matching rule at the edge; see the self-hosting guide |
Public URLs and multi-domain
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
APP_URL | Optional. Public origin of the app, read at request time (changing it needs a restart, not a rebuild). Used, for example, as the server address advertised in the OpenAPI spec. Falls back to NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL |
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL | Optional. Base URL of a dedicated dashboard subdomain (e.g. https://app.example.com) on the same deployment as your root domain. When set, marketing-page links go there instead of a relative /dashboard path. Most deployments serve everything from one domain and leave it unset |
AUTH_COOKIE_DOMAIN | Optional. Shares the session cookie across subdomains of your apex (e.g. .example.com). Required alongside NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL, because a session cookie is host-only by default |
AI providers
Platform default
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
OPENAI_API_KEY | Required for AI features unless every workspace brings its own key. The platform-wide OpenAI key, used for AI answers, draft replies and embeddings for any workspace that has not saved its own provider key |
Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, Mistral, xAI and OpenAI-compatible endpoints are configured per workspace in Settings → AI Model, where each workspace saves its own key. They are not read from environment variables, so ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY and MISTRAL_API_KEY have no effect; support for them is coming soon. Embeddings must produce 1536-dimension vectors.
Widget chat runtime
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
COPILOTKIT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED | Optional. Opts the widget chat runtime out of its telemetry ping. Defaults to true; set to false to opt back in |
Knowledge-base crawling
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY | Optional. Firecrawl API key; needed for URL crawl imports into the knowledge base |
FIRECRAWL_API_URL | Optional. Point at a self-hosted Firecrawl instance instead of the managed service |
Channels
Discord
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
DISCORD_TOKEN | Bot token from the Discord Developer Portal. Needed on both the app service (channel picker, invite flow) and the bot service. A workspace's own saved bot token takes precedence |
DISCORD_CLIENT_ID | Optional. Discord application client ID. When set, onboarding offers a 1-click "Add to Discord" flow instead of asking for a manually created bot token and channel IDs |
DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET | Optional. OAuth2 client secret; required together with DISCORD_CLIENT_ID for the 1-click flow |
DISCORD_APPLICATION_ID | Optional. Discord application ID (usually the same as DISCORD_CLIENT_ID). Required to register the /ask and /summarize slash commands |
DISCORD_GUILD_ID | Optional. When set, slash commands are registered for that one server (instant) instead of globally (can take up to an hour to appear) |
DISCORD_CHANNEL_IDS | Optional. Comma-separated channel IDs the bot watches when the workspace has no channels saved in Settings |
BOT_SECRET | Shared secret between the bot service and the app. Each workspace gets its own in Settings; this is the environment fallback |
BOT_TARGET_URL | URL of the app as seen from the bot service, e.g. https://answerloops.com (no trailing slash). Defaults to http://localhost:3000 |
Slack
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
SLACK_CLIENT_ID | Slack app client ID; enables the 1-click "Add to Slack" install |
SLACK_CLIENT_SECRET | Slack app client secret; required with SLACK_CLIENT_ID |
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET | Signing secret from your Slack app, needed for Events API delivery |
SLACK_POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS | Optional. How often, in seconds, the app polls Slack for new messages. Defaults to 60 |
Google Chat
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
GOOGLE_CHAT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON | Full service-account JSON key as a single-line string, used for outgoing replies through the Chat API |
GOOGLE_CHAT_ENDPOINT_URL | Public HTTP endpoint URL of the Chat app. Must exactly match what is configured in Google Cloud |
GitHub
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
GITHUB_APP_ID | Numeric ID of your GitHub App |
GITHUB_APP_PRIVATE_KEY | The App's PEM private key, base64-encoded (base64 -i your-app.pem | tr -d '\n') |
GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET | Webhook secret for the GitHub App. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32 and paste without a trailing newline. /api/github/webhook returns 503 until it is set |
GITHUB_APP_SLUG | URL slug of your GitHub App, e.g. answerloops |
GITHUB_APP_CLIENT_ID | The App's Client ID. Enable "Request user authorization (OAuth) during installation" on the App |
GITHUB_APP_CLIENT_SECRET | A client secret generated in the App settings; required with GITHUB_APP_CLIENT_ID |
Telegram
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_BASE_URL | Optional. Overrides AUTH_URL as the base for the Telegram webhook address. Each workspace saves its own bot token in Integrations → Telegram, so there is no bot-token variable |
Email (Resend, Gmail, Outlook)
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
RESEND_API_KEY | Resend API key for outbound transactional email and the email ingest channel |
RESEND_FROM | Default sender address for transactional email, e.g. [email protected] |
RESEND_NEWSLETTER_FROM | Sender address for blog newsletter signup confirmations (can match RESEND_FROM) |
RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET | Required for inbound email through Resend, and for bounce and complaint tracking. Signing secret (whsec_...) of your Resend webhook. Without it, Resend's events are not accepted; outbound replies still send |
GMAIL_CLIENT_ID / GMAIL_CLIENT_SECRET | Optional. Google Cloud OAuth client for the "Connect Gmail" send-only integration. Without it that feature is unavailable |
GMAIL_REDIRECT_URI | Optional. Override for the Gmail OAuth callback URL (defaults to <app-url>/api/email/gmail/callback) |
OUTLOOK_CLIENT_ID / OUTLOOK_CLIENT_SECRET | Optional. Microsoft Entra app registration for the "Connect Outlook" send-only integration. Without it that feature is unavailable |
OUTLOOK_REDIRECT_URI | Optional. Override for the Outlook OAuth callback URL (defaults to <app-url>/api/email/outlook/callback) |
FEEDBACK_NOTIFY_EMAIL | Optional. Where to send an alert when someone posts product feedback. Defaults to [email protected]; set your own address on a self-hosted install |
Per-workspace integrations (no environment variable)
Discourse, Circle and the Notion knowledge-base source are configured entirely per workspace. There is no platform-wide app or shared credential to set; each workspace pastes its own token or secret in Settings, and it is stored encrypted with ENCRYPTION_KEY.
| Integration | Where it's configured | Setup guide |
|---|---|---|
| Discourse | Integrations → Discourse | Discourse |
| Circle | Integrations → Circle | Circle |
| Notion KB source | Integrations → Notion | Notion |
Operations
Analytics tuning
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
ROI_MINUTES_PER_TICKET | Optional. Minutes assumed saved per deflected ticket in the ROI calculation. Defaults to 10 |
ROI_STAFF_HOURLY_RATE | Optional. Hourly staff rate used to turn hours saved into a dollar figure. Defaults to 50 |
Web Push (VAPID)
Browser push notifications turn on when both keys are set. They announce new tickets and customer replies on existing ones; replies on the same ticket replace each other on the device.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY | VAPID public key |
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY | VAPID private key |
VAPID_EMAIL | Optional. Contact address in mailto: form, e.g. mailto:[email protected] |
Generate a key pair with:
npx web-push generate-vapid-keysSentry (error tracking)
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
SENTRY_DSN | Optional. DSN from your Sentry project's Client Keys settings. Unset disables error tracking entirely; no requests to Sentry are made |
SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN | Optional. Only needed to upload source maps at build time |
SENTRY_ORG | Optional. Sentry organization slug, used with SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN |
SENTRY_PROJECT | Optional. Sentry project slug, used with SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN |
Build, privacy and development
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
CLOUDFLARE_WEB_ANALYTICS | Optional. Set to true to allow Cloudflare Web Analytics on pages. Read when the config loads, so set it where the build runs |
NEXT_PUBLIC_DOCS_WIDGET_TOKEN | Optional. Embeds a chat widget token on the built-in /docs pages. Local or dev use; the widget does not render without it |
ALLOW_PRIVATE_OUTBOUND_URLS | Development only. Set to true to let outbound fetches reach private addresses; ignored when NODE_ENV=production |
MOCK_EXTERNALS | Test suites only. Replaces external services with in-process fakes; a production process refuses to run with it set |
Billing and deployment mode
Everything in this section is for answerLoops' own managed service. Self-hosters leave all of it unset: your install is unmetered, every feature is unlocked, and no Stripe account is needed.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
DEPLOYMENT_MODE | Managed service only. Set to cloud only on answerLoops' own managed deployment. It decides whether plan-tier feature gating applies at all. Any other value, or unset, means self-hosted |
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY | Managed service only. Stripe secret API key. Required when DEPLOYMENT_MODE=cloud; its absence there is treated as a misconfiguration (billing shows an error state) |
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET | Managed service only. Signing secret for the Stripe webhook endpoint (/api/billing/webhook) |
STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY | Managed service only. Publishable key (pk_...) for the embedded checkout form on /checkout, read at request time. NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY is still accepted as a fallback. Without either, the page shows a disabled state instead of a card form |
STRIPE_PRICE_STANDARD / STRIPE_PRICE_PRO / STRIPE_PRICE_ENTERPRISE | Managed service only. Stripe Price IDs for each paid plan's checkout. Each must hold the price for the plan it names: the amount shown in the app comes from the code, the amount charged from Stripe |
STRIPE_PRICE_STANDARD_ANNUAL / STRIPE_PRICE_PRO_ANNUAL / STRIPE_PRICE_ENTERPRISE_ANNUAL | Managed service only. Yearly Price IDs for the same plans, used when a visitor picks annual billing. A plan without one declines annual checkout rather than billing the monthly price |
FEEDBACK_WIDGET_ENABLED | Managed service only. Set to true or 1 to show the product feedback board. Off by default; self-hosted installs have no board |
DEPLOYMENT_MODE exists so deployment type is never guessed from whether STRIPE_SECRET_KEY happens to be set. A missing or rotated key on the managed service surfaces as a misconfiguration instead of silently turning every paying workspace into an unmetered one.