directus/docs/reference/environment-variables.md

Environment Variables

Directus uses Environment Variables for all configuration of the project.

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General

Variable	Description	Default Value
PORT	What port to run the API under.	8055
PUBLIC_URL	URL where your API can be reached on the web.	/
LOG_LEVEL	What level of detail to log. One of fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace or silent.	info
LOG_STYLE	Render the logs human readable (pretty) or as JSON. One of pretty, raw.	pretty

Database

Variable	Description	Default Value
DB_CLIENT	Required. What database client to use. One of pg or postgres, mysql, oracledb, mssql, or sqlite3.	--
DB_HOST	Database host. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql.	--
DB_PORT	Database port. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql.	--
DB_DATABASE	Database name. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql.	--
DB_USER	Database user. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql.	--
DB_PASSWORD	Database user's password. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql.	--
DB_FILENAME	Where to read/write the SQLite database. Required when using sqlite3.	--
DB_CONNECTION_STRING	When using pg, you can submit a connection string instead of individual properties. Using this will ignore any of the other connection settings.	--

::: tip Additional Database Variables

All DB_* environment variables are passed to the connection configuration of a Knex instance. Based on your project's needs, you can extend the DB_* environment variables with any config you need to pass to the database instance.

:::

Security

Variable	Description	Default Value
KEY	Unique identifier for the project.	--
SECRET	Secret string for the project.	--
ACCESS_TOKEN_TTL	The duration that the access token is valid.	7d
REFRESH_TOKEN_TTL	The duration that the refresh token is valid, and also how long users stay logged-in to the App.	15m
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SECURE	Whether or not to use a secure cookie for the refresh token in cookie mode.	false
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SAME_SITE	Value for sameSite in the refresh token cookie when in cookie mode.	lax

CORS

Variable	Description	Default Value
CORS_ENABLED	Whether or not to enable the CORS headers.	true
CORS_ORIGIN	Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. Use true to match the Origin header, or provide a domain or a CSV of domains for specific access	--
CORS_METHODS	Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Methods header.	GET,POST,PATCH,DELETE
CORS_ALLOWED_HEADERS	Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Headers header.	Content-Type,Authorization
CORS_EXPOSED_HEADERS	Value for the Access-Control-Expose-Headers header.	Content-Range
CORS_CREDENTIALS	Whether or not to send the Access-Control-Allow-Credentials header.	true
CORS_MAX_AGE	Value for the Access-Control-Max-Age header.	18000

Rate Limiting

Variable	Description	Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_ENABLED	Whether or not to enable rate limiting on the API.	false
RATE_LIMITER_POINTS	The amount of allowed hits per duration.	50
RATE_LIMITER_DURATION	The time window in seconds in which the points are counted.	1
RATE_LIMITER_STORE	Where to store the rate limiter counts. One of memory, redis, or memcache.	memory

Based on the RATE_LIMITER_STORE used, you must also provide the following configurations:

Memory

No additional configuration required.

Redis

Variable	Description	Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS	Redis connection string, eg: redis://:authpassword@127.0.0.1:6380/4	---

Alternatively, you can provide the individual connection parameters:

Variable	Description	Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_HOST	Hostname of the Redis instance	--
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_PORT	Port of the Redis instance	--
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_PASSWORD	Password for your Redis instance	--

Memcache

Variable	Description	Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_MEMCACHE	Location of your memcache instance	---

::: tip Additional Rate Limiter Variables

All RATE_LIMITER_* variables are passed directly to a rate-limiter-flexible instance. Depending on your project's needs, you can extend the above environment variables to configure any of the rate-limiter-flexible options.

:::

Cache

Variable	Description	Default Value
ASSETS_CACHE_TTL	How long assets will be cached for in the browser. Sets the max-age value of the Cache-Control header.	30m
CACHE_ENABLED	Whether or not caching is enabled.	false
CACHE_TTL	How long the cache is persisted.	30m
CACHE_AUTO_PURGE	Automatically purge the cache on create/update/delete actions.	false
CACHE_NAMESPACE	How to scope the cache data.	directus-cache
CACHE_STORE	Where to store the cache data. Either memory, redis, or memcache.	memory

Based on the CACHE_STORE used, you must also provide the following configurations:

Memory

No additional configuration required.

Redis

Variable	Description	Default Value
CACHE_REDIS	Redis connection string, eg: redis://:authpassword@127.0.0.1:6380/4	---

Alternatively, you can provide the individual connection parameters:

Variable	Description	Default Value
CACHE_REDIS_HOST	Hostname of the Redis instance	--
CACHE_REDIS_PORT	Port of the Redis instance	--
CACHE_REDIS_PASSWORD	Password for your Redis instance	--

Memcache

Variable	Description	Default Value
CACHE_MEMCACHE	Location of your memcache instance	---

File Storage

Variable	Description	Default Value
STORAGE_LOCATIONS	A CSV of storage locations (eg: local,digitalocean,amazon) to use. You can use any names you'd like for these keys.	local

For each of the storage locations listed, you must provide the following configuration:

Variable	Description	Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_PUBLIC_URL	Location on the internet where the files are accessible
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_DRIVER	Which driver to use, either local, s3, or gcs

Based on your configured driver, you must also provide the following configurations:

Local (local)

Variable	Description	Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ROOT	Where to store the files on disk	--

S3 (s3)

Variable	Description	Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_KEY	User key	--
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_SECRET	User secret	--
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ENDPOINT	S3 Endpoint	--
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_BUCKET	S3 Bucket	--
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_REGION	S3 Region	--

Google Cloud Storage (gcs)

Variable	Description	Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_KEY_FILENAME	Path to key file on disk	--
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_BUCKET	Google Cloud Storage bucket	--

If you don't provide any configuration for storage adapters, Directus will default to the following:

STORAGE_LOCATIONS="local"
STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT="./uploads"

oAuth

Variable	Description	Default Value
OAUTH_PROVIDERS	CSV of oAuth providers you want to use.	--

For each of the oAuth providers you list, you must also provide a number of extra variables. These differ per external service. The following is a list of common required configuration options:

Variable	Description	Default Value
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_KEY	oAuth key (a.k.a. application id) for the external service.	--
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_SECRET	oAuth secret for the external service.	--
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_SCOPE	A white-space separated list of privileges directus should ask for. A common value is: openid email.	--
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_AUTHORIZE_URL	The authorize page URL of the external service	--
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_ACCESS_URL	The access URL of the external service	--
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_PROFILE_URL	Where Directus can fetch the profile information of the authenticated user.	--

Directus relies on grant for the handling of the oAuth flow. Grant includes a lot of default values for popular services. For example, if you use apple as one of your providers, you only have to specify the key and secret, as Grant has the rest covered. Checkout the grant repo for more information.

Extensions

Variable	Description	Default Value
EXTENSIONS_PATH	Path to your local extensions folder.	./extensions

Email

Variable	Description	Default Value
EMAIL_FROM	Email address from which emails are sent.	no-reply@directus.io
EMAIL_TRANSPORT	What to use to send emails. One of sendmail, smtp.	sendmail

Based on the EMAIL_TRANSPORT used, you must also provide the following configurations:

Sendmail (sendmail)

Variable	Description	Default Value
EMAIL_SENDMAIL_NEW_LINE	What new line style to use in sendmail.	unix
EMAIL_SENDMAIL_PATH	Path to your sendmail executable.	/usr/sbin/sendmail

SMTP (smtp)

Variable	Description	Default Value
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST	SMTP Host	--
EMAIL_SMTP_PORT	SMTP Port	--
EMAIL_SMTP_USER	SMTP User	--
EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD	SMTP Password	--
EMAIL_SMTP_POOL	Use SMTP pooling	--
EMAIL_SMTP_SECURE	Enable TLS	--

Misc.

If you're relying on Docker and/or the directus bootstrap CLI command, you can pass the following two environment variables to automatically configure the first user:

Variable	Description	Default Value
ADMIN_EMAIL	The email address of the first user that's automatically created when using directus bootstrap.	--
ADMIN_PASSWORD	The password of the first user that's automatically created when using directus bootstrap.	--

---

Type Casting and Nesting

Environment variables are automatically type cast based on the structure of the variable, for example:

PUBLIC_URL="https://example.com"
// "https://example.com"

DB_HOST="3306"
// 3306

CORS_ENABLED="false"
// false

STORAGE_LOCATIONS="s3,local,example"
// ["s3", "local", "example"]

In cases where the environment variables are converted to a configuration object for third party library use, like in DB_* or RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_*, the environment variable will be converted to camelCase. You can use a double underscore (__) for nested objects:

DB_CLIENT="pg"
DB_CONNECTION_STRING="postgresql://postgres:example@127.0.0.1"
DB_SSL__REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED="false"

{
	client: "pg",
	connectionString: "postgresql://postgres:example@127.0.0.1",
	ssl: {
		rejectUnauthorized: false
	}
}