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Common Environment Variables

All of the global configuration options that are not built into the UI are set via environment variables. This page contains an exhaustive list of all the options. There are defaults set in the code so changing/settings these values is not required to use Danswer. A few notable settings that are more frequently changed however are the following:
  • AUTH_TYPE (default value is disabled)
  • MULTILINGUAL_QUERY_EXPANSION (you can provide a comma separated list of languages for query rephrasing such as English,French)
  • LOG_LEVEL (default is info)
  • WEB_DOMAIN (your full url in production, including the protocol- e.g. https://www.danswer.ai)

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Docker Compose

There are several ways to configure environment variables for the containers. For Docker Compose, there are many ways to pass environment variables to the container, any of the standard approaches will work. However the preferred approach for Danswer is to use the .env file. To do this, create a file called .env at danswer/deployment/docker_compose/.env. From there, populate it with the values you want to override: 
# Configures basic email/password based login
AUTH_TYPE="basic"

# Rephrasing the query into different languages to improve search recall
MULTILINGUAL_QUERY_EXPANSION="English,Spanish,German"

# Set a cheaper/faster LLM for the flows that are easier (such as translating the query etc.)
FAST_GEN_AI_MODEL_VERSION="gpt-3.5-turbo"

# Setting more verbose logging
LOG_LEVEL="debug"
LOG_ALL_MODEL_INTERACTIONS="true"

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Kubernetes

For Kubernetes, the deployment yaml files includes an Environment ConfigMap. Simply update the values in the file here.

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All Environment Variables

This is an extensive list of the currently supported environment variables within Danswer. There are several classes of environment variables. All of the global configuration options that are not built into the UI are set via environment variables. You can set these in your .env file.

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Auth Settings

These variables control authentication and user management in Danswer.

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AUTH_TYPE

Controls the authentication method used by Danswer.
disabled: No authentication is required.google_oauth: Users can log in using their Google accounts.basic: Standard username/password authentication.oidc: OpenID Connect, available in the enterprise edition.saml: Security Assertion Markup Language, available in the enterprise edition.

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SESSION_EXPIRE_TIME_SECONDS

Defines the duration of a user’s session in seconds. Default is 24 hours.

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ENCRYPTION_KEY_SECRET

A strong, unique string used for encryption purposes. Keep this value secret.

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VALID_EMAIL_DOMAINS

Comma-separated list of allowed email domains for authentication. Leave empty to allow all domains.

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GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID

Client ID for Google OAuth authentication, obtained from Google Cloud Console.

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GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET

Client Secret for Google OAuth authentication, obtained from Google Cloud Console. Keep this value secret.

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REQUIRE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION

When set to true, users must verify their email before accessing Danswer.

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SMTP_SERVER

Hostname of the SMTP server for sending verification emails. Default is smtp.gmail.com.

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SMTP_PORT

Port used for SMTP communication. Common values are 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL).

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SMTP_USER

Username for SMTP authentication, often an email address used to send verification emails.

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SMTP_PASS

Password for SMTP authentication. Keep this value secret.

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EMAIL_FROM

Email address used as the sender for verification emails.

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Gen AI Settings

These variables configure the generative AI capabilities of Danswer. These are covered in more depth at the generative AI configs.

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GEN_AI_MODEL_PROVIDER

Specifies the provider of the generative AI model (e.g., openai, anthropic, huggingface).

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GEN_AI_MODEL_VERSION

Defines the version of the generative AI model to use (e.g., gpt-4 for OpenAI).

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FAST_GEN_AI_MODEL_VERSION

Specifies a faster (usually smaller) model version for certain tasks.

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GEN_AI_API_KEY

API key for accessing the generative AI service. Keep this value secret.

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GEN_AI_API_ENDPOINT

Custom endpoint URL for the AI service, if applicable.

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GEN_AI_API_VERSION

Version of the AI provider’s API to use.

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GEN_AI_LLM_PROVIDER_TYPE

Specifies the type of LLM provider being used (e.g., openai, anthropic, azure).

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GEN_AI_MAX_TOKENS

Maximum number of tokens to generate in AI responses.

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QA_TIMEOUT

Timeout for question-answering operations in seconds.

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MAX_CHUNKS_FED_TO_CHAT

Maximum number of document chunks fed into a single chat session.

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DISABLE_LLM_FILTER_EXTRACTION

Set to true to disable LLM-based filter extraction from queries.

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DISABLE_LLM_CHUNK_FILTER

Set to true to disable LLM-based filtering of document chunks. Set to true to disable LLM-based selection of search method.

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DISABLE_LLM_QUERY_REPHRASE

Set to true to disable LLM-based query rephrasing.

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DISABLE_GENERATIVE_AI

Set to true to disable all generative AI functionality.

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DISABLE_LITELLM_STREAMING

Set to true to disable streaming responses when using LiteLLM.

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LITELLM_EXTRA_HEADERS

JSON-formatted string of key-value pairs for additional headers in LiteLLM API requests.

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TOKEN_BUDGET_GLOBALLY_ENABLED

Set to true to enable the global token budget system.

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AWS Bedrock Settings

These variables are used for AWS Bedrock integration.

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AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

AWS access key ID for Bedrock access, obtained from AWS IAM.

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AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

AWS secret access key for Bedrock access, obtained from AWS IAM. Keep this value secret.

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AWS_REGION_NAME

AWS region where Bedrock is deployed (e.g., us-west-2).

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Query Options

These variables control various aspects of query processing and search behavior.

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DOC_TIME_DECAY

Controls the recency bias in search results. Higher values increase preference for newer documents.

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HYBRID_ALPHA

Balances keyword vs. vector search in hybrid search. Range 0-1 (0 for pure keyword, 1 for pure vector search).

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EDIT_KEYWORD_QUERY

Set to true to enable query editing for keyword searches.

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MULTILINGUAL_QUERY_EXPANSION

Set to true to enable multilingual query expansion.

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QA_PROMPT_OVERRIDE

Custom prompt text to override the default prompt used for question-answering.

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Other Services

Configuration for external services used by Danswer.

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POSTGRES_HOST

Hostname or IP address of the Postgres server. Default is relational_db.

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VESPA_HOST

Hostname or IP address of the Vespa server. Default is index.

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WEB_DOMAIN

Fully qualified domain name used for the Danswer web interface. (e.g. https://www.danswer.com)

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NLP Model Configurations

Advanced settings for NLP models. Modify with caution.

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DOCUMENT_ENCODER_MODEL

Name or path of the encoder model used for document encoding.

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DOC_EMBEDDING_DIM

Dimension of document embeddings, typically matching the chosen encoder model’s output dimension.

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NORMALIZE_EMBEDDINGS

Set to true to enable normalization of embeddings.

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ASYM_QUERY_PREFIX

Text prepended to queries in asymmetric semantic search.

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ENABLE_RERANKING_REAL_TIME_FLOW

Set to true to enable reranking in real-time search flow.

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ENABLE_RERANKING_ASYNC_FLOW

Set to true to enable reranking in asynchronous search flow.

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MODEL_SERVER_HOST

Hostname or IP address of the model server. Default is inference_model_server.

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MODEL_SERVER_PORT

Port on which the model server is listening.

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Miscellaneous

< Various other configuration options.

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DISABLE_TELEMETRY

Set to true to opt out of telemetry. Telemetry helps improve Danswer; no sensitive data is collected.

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LOG_LEVEL

Sets the logging verbosity. Possible values: debug, info, warning, error, critical.

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LOG_ALL_MODEL_INTERACTIONS

Set to true to enable logging of all prompts sent to the LLM.

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LOG_VESPA_TIMING_INFORMATION

Set to true to enable additional logging of Vespa query performance.

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LOG_ENDPOINT_LATENCY

Set to true to enable logging of endpoint latency information.

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ENV_SEED_CONFIGURATION

If you want to start your instance of Danswer with pre-configured options, you can use environment variables to seed it with pre-specified options. These will persist across restarts, shut-down of volumes, etc.
  • llms: a list of llm configurations
    • Each item in the list should contain: name, provider, api_key, api_base, api_version, custom_config, default_model_name, fast_default_model_name
  • admin_user_emails: a list of email addresses which, upon signing up, should automatically be assigned admin roles.
  • seeded_name: pre-set name for your company’s Danswer instance (e.g. “Acme’s Danswer”).
  • seeded_logo_path: pre-set path to your logo (as seen from the perspective of the backend repository). This should point to a path within assets (the folder within /backend) (e.g. assets/logo.png)
Example configuration: export ENV_SEED_CONFIGURATION='{"admin_user_emails": ["email@gmail.com"], "seeded_name": "Acme Corp", "seeded_logo_path": "assets/logo.png"}'