Skip to main content
Emdash supports several optional environment variables to customize its behavior. All environment variables are optional and have sensible defaults.

​
Emdash environment variables

These variables control core Emdash functionality.

​
EMDASH_DB_FILE

Override the location of the SQLite database file. 
export EMDASH_DB_FILE="/custom/path/to/emdash.db"
Default locations:
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/emdash/emdash.db
  • Linux: ~/.config/emdash/emdash.db
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\emdash\emdash.db
Useful for testing, backing up to a custom location, or running multiple isolated Emdash instances.

​
EMDASH_DISABLE_NATIVE_DB

Disable the native SQLite driver and fall back to a JavaScript-based implementation. 
export EMDASH_DISABLE_NATIVE_DB=1
Use case: Troubleshooting database issues or environments where native SQLite modules fail to load.

​
EMDASH_DISABLE_CLONE_CACHE

Disable repository clone caching. 
export EMDASH_DISABLE_CLONE_CACHE=1
Use case: Force fresh clones every time or troubleshoot clone-related issues.

​
EMDASH_DISABLE_PTY

Disable PTY (pseudo-terminal) support. Primarily used in automated tests. 
export EMDASH_DISABLE_PTY=1
Disabling PTY will prevent terminal functionality from working. Only use this for testing purposes.

​
TELEMETRY_ENABLED

Control anonymous telemetry reporting to help improve Emdash. 
# Disable telemetry
export TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false

# Enable telemetry (default)
export TELEMETRY_ENABLED=true
Telemetry data includes:
  • Feature usage patterns
  • Error reports (anonymized)
  • Performance metrics
No personal information, code, or credentials are collected.

​
Agent API key environment variables

When Emdash spawns CLI agents, it passes through specific environment variables needed for authentication. These variables are defined in AGENT_ENV_VARS and are automatically forwarded to agent processes.

​
Anthropic (Claude)

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
Required for Claude Code CLI agent.

​
OpenAI

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"  # Optional
Required for OpenAI-based agents.

​
Google AI

export GOOGLE_API_KEY="AIza..."
export GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."

# For Google Cloud
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/path/to/service-account.json"
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="project-id"
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION="us-central1"
Required for Gemini and other Google AI services.

​
AWS (Bedrock)

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..."
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="..."
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="us-east-1"
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN="..."  # Optional
export AWS_PROFILE="default"     # Optional
Required for AWS Bedrock and other AWS AI services.

​
Azure OpenAI

export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="..."
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT="https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/"
export AZURE_OPENAI_KEY="..."  # Alternative key name

​
GitHub

export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_..."
export GH_TOKEN="ghp_..."  # Alternative token name
Required for GitHub CLI (gh) operations like creating pull requests.

​
Other agent-specific variables

# Amp
export AMP_API_KEY="..."

# Autohand
export AUTOHAND_API_KEY="..."

# Augment
export AUGMENT_SESSION_AUTH="..."

# CodeBuff
export CODEBUFF_API_KEY="..."

# Copilot
export COPILOT_CLI_TOKEN="..."

# Cursor
export CURSOR_API_KEY="..."

# DashScope (Qwen)
export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="..."

# Factory
export FACTORY_API_KEY="..."

# Kimi
export KIMI_API_KEY="..."

# Mistral
export MISTRAL_API_KEY="..."

# Moonshot
export MOONSHOT_API_KEY="..."

​
Proxy variables

export HTTP_PROXY="http://proxy.example.com:8080"
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://proxy.example.com:8080"
export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,.local"
Used by agents that respect standard proxy environment variables.

​
Codex agent variables

Special configuration for the Codex agent.

​
CODEX_SANDBOX_MODE

Enable sandbox mode for Codex agent execution. 
export CODEX_SANDBOX_MODE=1

​
CODEX_APPROVAL_POLICY

Set approval policy for Codex operations. 
export CODEX_APPROVAL_POLICY="auto"  # or "manual"

​
SSH authentication

​
SSH_AUTH_SOCK

Emdash automatically detects and passes through your SSH agent socket for remote development: 
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/tmp/ssh-agent.sock"
This is typically set automatically by your system’s SSH agent. Emdash preserves it when spawning shells and remote connections.

​
Display and desktop environment

For GUI operations from within PTY sessions, Emdash forwards these variables: 
export DISPLAY=":0"                                    # X11 display server
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY="wayland-0"                     # Wayland compositor
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/1000"                # Contains sockets
export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP="GNOME"                     # Desktop environment
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE="wayland"                      # Session type
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=/run/..."   # D-Bus
export XAUTHORITY="/home/user/.Xauthority"            # X11 auth
These are automatically passed through when present and do not need manual configuration.

​
Setting environment variables

​
macOS/Linux

Add to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):
~/.zshrc
# Emdash configuration
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_..."

# Optional overrides
export EMDASH_DB_FILE="$HOME/custom-emdash.db"
export TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false
Then reload your shell: 
source ~/.zshrc

​
Windows (PowerShell)

Add to your PowerShell profile ($PROFILE): 
# Emdash configuration
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "sk-ant-..."
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-..."
$env:GITHUB_TOKEN = "ghp_..."

# Optional overrides
$env:EMDASH_DB_FILE = "C:\Users\YourName\custom-emdash.db"
$env:TELEMETRY_ENABLED = "false"

​
Windows (CMD)

Set system environment variables: 
setx ANTHROPIC_API_KEY "sk-ant-..."
setx OPENAI_API_KEY "sk-..."
setx GITHUB_TOKEN "ghp_..."
Changes to environment variables require restarting Emdash to take effect.

​
Per-provider environment variables

You can also set provider-specific environment variables in the application settings:
settings.json
{
  "providerConfigs": {
    "claude": {
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-...",
        "CUSTOM_VAR": "value"
      }
    }
  }
}
See Application settings - Provider configs for details.

​
Security best practices

Never commit API keys to version control.Use environment variables or secure secret management tools instead.
  1. Use environment variables for API keys instead of hardcoding them
  2. Use .env files for local development (add to .gitignore)
  3. Use secret managers for production environments (AWS Secrets Manager, etc.)
  4. Rotate keys regularly and revoke old keys
  5. Use least-privilege keys - only grant necessary permissions

​
Verifying environment variables

To check which environment variables Emdash is using, you can:
  1. Open a terminal in Emdash
  2. Run env | grep EMDASH to see Emdash variables
  3. Run env | grep API_KEY to see agent API keys (if set)
API keys are passed to agent processes but are not visible in the Emdash UI for security reasons.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us