Environment Variables Reference

## API Keys

All API keys are read from environment variables for security. Never put API keys in config files.

Variable	Provider	Description
`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	OpenRouter	OpenRouter API key (openrouter.ai)
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI	OpenAI API key (platform.openai.com)
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Anthropic	Anthropic API key (console.anthropic.com)
`DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`	DeepSeek	DeepSeek API key (platform.deepseek.com)
`GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`	Google	Path to Google Cloud credentials JSON file
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	Amazon	AWS access key for Bedrock
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	Amazon	AWS secret key for Bedrock
`AWS_REGION`	Amazon	AWS region for Bedrock
`CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN`	Cloudflare	Cloudflare Workers AI token

Octomind also loads .env files from the current directory via dotenvy. Variables in .env override system environment variables.

Octomind Configuration

Variable	Description
`OCTOMIND_CONFIG_PATH`	Override config directory path (default: `~/.local/share/octomind/config/`)
`OCTOMIND_SKILLS`	Comma-delimited skill names to preload at session start (e.g., `programming-rust,git-workflow`). Skills are activated permanently without evaluating declarative rules.
`OCTOMIND_CAPABILITIES`	Comma-delimited capability names to force-enable at session start (e.g., `cron,docker`). Bypasses the auto-activation embedding pipeline; capabilities are loaded deterministically regardless of intent matching. Already-active entries are no-ops.
`OCTOMIND_SHARE_URL`	Base URL of the web viewer used by `/share` (upload endpoint) and `/analyze` (viewer link). Defaults to `https://octomind.run`. Override only when pointing at a self-hosted instance or a local dev server.

Variables used by install.sh for automated/CI environments.

Variable	Description
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	GitHub API token to avoid rate limits during installation
`GH_TOKEN`	Alternative token variable (GitHub CLI convention)
`OCTOMIND_INSTALL_DIR`	Override installation directory (default: `~/.local/bin/`)
`OCTOMIND_VERSION`	Install a specific version instead of latest

Variable	Default	Description
`OPENROUTER_APP_TITLE`	`"Octomind"`	Application title sent to OpenRouter
`OPENROUTER_HTTP_REFERER`	`"https://octomind.run"`	HTTP referer sent to OpenRouter

Available in system and welcome config fields. Use octomind vars to see current values.

Variable	Description
`{{CWD}}`	Current working directory path
`{{ROLE}}`	Active role name
`{{DATE}}`	Current date
`{{SHELL}}`	User's shell (e.g., `bash`, `zsh`)
`{{OS}}`	Operating system name
`{{BINARIES}}`	Available binary tools on PATH
`{{GIT_STATUS}}`	Git repository status (branch, changes)
`{{README}}`	Contents of `README.md` in project root
`{{CONTEXT}}`	Session context (for layer system prompts)
`{{SYSTEM}}`	Parent system prompt (for layer system prompts)

Available to hook scripts when processing incoming webhooks.

Variable	Description
`HOOK_NAME`	Name of the hook that triggered
`HOOK_METHOD`	HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
`HOOK_PATH`	Request path
`HOOK_QUERY`	Query string
`HOOK_CONTENT_TYPE`	Content-Type header value
`HOOK_SESSION`	Session name the hook is attached to
`HOOK_HEADER_*`	Each HTTP header as `HOOK_HEADER_<NAME>` (uppercased, hyphens to underscores)

Octomind automatically loads .env files from the working directory. This is useful for project-specific API keys:

# .env
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

The EnvTracker system tracks whether each variable came from the system environment or .env file, which can be seen in debug mode.