Environment variables

Environment variables are the simplest way to configure Seshat on a server or in a script. This page lists the ones that Configuration, Security and trust and Using the CLI do not already describe: the model and key variables, the gRPC variables and the RAG_* variables are there.

Folders and files

The runtime folder is described in Configuration. Its location is set by SESHAT_RUNTIME_ROOT.

Variable	Default	Effect
SESHAT_GLOBAL_CONFIG	the runtime folder	The folder that holds the global seshat.json. See Configuration file
SESHAT_GLOBAL_DATA	the runtime folder	The folder of the data configuration, used when an application overrides settings instead of updating the global file
SESHAT_CACHE_DIR	cache in the runtime folder	Where the cache is kept
SESHAT_SKILLS_DIR	the usual skill folders	When set, the terminal interface uses this one folder for global skills
SESHAT_MEMORY_PATH	memory in the runtime folder	Where long-term memory is kept
SESHAT_AUTH_PATH	none	Where auth.json is kept, the file that holds sign-in tokens
SESHAT_MASTER_KEY	a key derived from the machine	The key that encrypts the stored credentials: 64 hexadecimal characters, which is 32 bytes. Any other length is refused. Set it on a server so that the credentials do not depend on the machine

Storage of files made by the agent

By default the files the agent produces are kept in a local folder. See ClientConfig for the StorageConfig field that sets the same thing from Go.

Variable	Default	Effect
SESHAT_STORAGE_PROVIDER	local	s3 keeps the files in an S3 bucket. Any other value, or none, keeps them locally
SESHAT_STORAGE_LOCAL_PATH	the runtime folder	The folder of the local storage
SESHAT_S3_ENDPOINT	none	The address of the S3 service
SESHAT_S3_BUCKET	none	The bucket
SESHAT_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID, SESHAT_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	none	The credentials
SESHAT_S3_REGION	none	The region
SESHAT_S3_KEY_PREFIX	none	A prefix added to the keys of the stored objects

Providers

The variables that carry the key of each provider are in the table of Configuration. These add to it.

Variable	Default	Effect
OLLAMA_HOST	http://localhost:11434	The address of the Ollama server
AWS_PROFILE	none	An AWS profile. With a region, it makes Bedrock available
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN	none	The rest of the AWS credentials used to sign Bedrock requests, with AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION	none	Counts as a region when Seshat checks whether Bedrock is available. The requests themselves use AWS_REGION, so set that one too
AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK	none	A bearer token for Bedrock. When set, the requests use it instead of the AWS signature
ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_API_KEY	none	A bearer token for Vertex AI, used when no key was given another way
SESHAT_DISABLE_DEFAULT_PROVIDERS	false	The same as options.disable_default_providers in the configuration file
SESHAT_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE	false	The same as options.disable_provider_auto_update in the configuration file

Web search

The provider keys (TAVILY_API_KEY, EXA_API_KEY, JINA_API_KEY, LANGSEARCH_API_KEY) are described in Configuration. To search with your own SearXNG instance or your own endpoint:

Variable	Default	Effect
SEARXNG_URL, SEARXNG_BASE_URL	none	The base address of a SearXNG instance. SEARXNG_URL wins when both are set
SEARXNG_AUTH_USERNAME, SEARXNG_AUTH_PASSWORD	none	Basic authentication. AUTH_USERNAME and AUTH_PASSWORD are read when these are not set
SEARXNG_USER_AGENT	SeshatAI-WebSearch/2.0	The User-Agent sent to SearXNG. USER_AGENT is read when it is not set
SEARXNG_HTTP_PROXY	none	A proxy for SearXNG. HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY are read when it is not set
SEARXNG_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE	all	The language of the results when the call does not give one
WEB_SEARCH_API	none	The address of a search endpoint of your own. The tool sends it the query as q, and one allowed_domain per allowed domain

Retrieval

Variable	Default	Effect
RAG_RERANK_API_KEY	none	The key sent to the reranking service named by RAG_RERANK_URL. See Retrieval and knowledge

Observability

Variable	Default	Effect
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT	none	When set, traces are exported to this OpenTelemetry endpoint over gRPC. Without it, nothing is exported
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE	no TLS	The exporter connects without TLS, which suits a local collector. Set it to false to use TLS
ENVIRONMENT	development	The environment name written in the logs

Behaviour

Variable	Default	Effect
SESHAT_REPO_MAP	off	With 1, true, yes, on or enabled, a compact map of the repository (about 1,024 tokens) is added to the prompt every turn
SESHAT_CORE_UTILS	on Windows only	true or false. Whether the shell of the terminal interface uses the core utilities built into Seshat

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