---
title: Environment variables
slug: /reference/configuration
---

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OpenRAG recognizes environment variables from the following sources:

* [Environment variables](#configure-environment-variables) - Values set in the `.env` file.
* [Langflow runtime overrides](#langflow-runtime-overrides) - Langflow components may tweak environment variables at runtime.
* [Default or fallback values](#default-values-and-fallbacks) - These values are default or fallback values if OpenRAG doesn't find a value.

## Configure environment variables

Environment variables are set in a `.env` file in the root of your OpenRAG project directory.

For an example `.env` file, see [`.env.example` in the OpenRAG repository](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/.env.example).

The Docker Compose files are populated with values from your `.env`, so you don't need to edit the Docker Compose files manually.

Environment variables always take precedence over other variables.

### Set environment variables

To set environment variables, do the following.

1. Stop OpenRAG.
2. Set the values in the `.env` file:
   ```bash
   LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
   LOG_FORMAT=json
   SERVICE_NAME=openrag-dev
   ```
3. Start OpenRAG.

Updating provider API keys or provider endpoints in the `.env` file will not take effect after [Application onboarding](/install#application-onboarding). To change these values, you must:

1. Stop OpenRAG.
2. Remove the containers:
   ```
   docker-compose down
   ```
3. Update the values in your `.env` file.
4. Start OpenRAG containers.
   ```
   docker-compose up -d
   ```
5. Complete [Application onboarding](/install#application-onboarding) again.

## Supported environment variables

All OpenRAG configuration can be controlled through environment variables.

### AI provider settings

Configure which AI models and providers OpenRAG uses for language processing and embeddings.
For more information, see [Application onboarding](/install#application-onboarding).

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `EMBEDDING_MODEL` | `text-embedding-3-small` | Embedding model for vector search. |
| `LLM_MODEL` | `gpt-4o-mini` | Language model for the chat agent. |
| `MODEL_PROVIDER` | `openai` | Model provider, such as OpenAI or IBM watsonx.ai. |
| `OPENAI_API_KEY` | - | Your OpenAI API key. Optional. Can be provided during application onboarding when installing OpenRAG. |
| `PROVIDER_API_KEY` | - | API key for the model provider. |
| `PROVIDER_ENDPOINT` | - | Custom provider endpoint. Only used for IBM or Ollama providers. |
| `PROVIDER_PROJECT_ID` | - | Project ID for providers. Only required for the IBM watsonx.ai provider. |

### Document processing

Control how OpenRAG processes and ingests documents into your knowledge base.
For more information, see [Ingestion](/ingestion).

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `CHUNK_OVERLAP` | `200` | Overlap between chunks. |
| `CHUNK_SIZE` | `1000` | Text chunk size for document processing. |
| `DISABLE_INGEST_WITH_LANGFLOW` | `false` | Disable Langflow ingestion pipeline. |
| `DOCLING_OCR_ENGINE` | - | OCR engine for document processing. |
| `OCR_ENABLED` | `false` | Enable OCR for image processing. |
| `OPENRAG_DOCUMENTS_PATHS` | `./documents` | Document paths for ingestion. |
| `PICTURE_DESCRIPTIONS_ENABLED` | `false` | Enable picture descriptions. |

### Langflow settings

Configure Langflow authentication.

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `LANGFLOW_AUTO_LOGIN` | `False` | Enable auto-login for Langflow. |
| `LANGFLOW_CHAT_FLOW_ID` | pre-filled | This value is pre-filled. The default value is found in [.env.example](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/.env.example). |
| `LANGFLOW_ENABLE_SUPERUSER_CLI` | `False` | Enable superuser CLI. |
| `LANGFLOW_INGEST_FLOW_ID` | pre-filled | This value is pre-filled. The default value is found in [.env.example](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/.env.example). |
| `LANGFLOW_KEY` | auto-generated | Explicit Langflow API key. |
| `LANGFLOW_NEW_USER_IS_ACTIVE` | `False` | New users are active by default. |
| `LANGFLOW_PUBLIC_URL` | `http://localhost:7860` | Public URL for Langflow. |
| `LANGFLOW_SECRET_KEY` | - | Secret key for Langflow internal operations. |
| `LANGFLOW_SUPERUSER` | - | Langflow admin username. Required. |
| `LANGFLOW_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD` | - | Langflow admin password. Required. |
| `LANGFLOW_URL` | `http://localhost:7860` | Langflow URL. |
| `NUDGES_FLOW_ID` | pre-filled | This value is pre-filled. The default value is found in [.env.example](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/.env.example). |
| `SYSTEM_PROMPT` | "You are a helpful AI assistant with access to a knowledge base. Answer questions based on the provided context." | System prompt for the Langflow agent. |

### OAuth provider settings

Configure OAuth providers and external service integrations.

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` / `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` | - | AWS integrations. |
| `GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID` / `GOOGLE_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET` | - | Google OAuth authentication. |
| `MICROSOFT_GRAPH_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID` / `MICROSOFT_GRAPH_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET` | - | Microsoft OAuth. |
| `WEBHOOK_BASE_URL` | - | Base URL for webhook endpoints. |

### OpenSearch settings

Configure OpenSearch database authentication.

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `OPENSEARCH_HOST` | `localhost` | OpenSearch host. |
| `OPENSEARCH_PASSWORD` | - | Password for OpenSearch admin user. Required. |
| `OPENSEARCH_PORT` | `9200` | OpenSearch port. |
| `OPENSEARCH_USERNAME` | `admin` | OpenSearch username. |

### System settings

Configure general system components, session management, and logging.

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `LANGFLOW_KEY_RETRIES` | `15` | Number of retries for Langflow key generation. |
| `LANGFLOW_KEY_RETRY_DELAY` | `2.0` | Delay between retries in seconds. |
| `LANGFLOW_VERSION` | `latest` | Langflow Docker image version. |
| `LOG_FORMAT` | - | Log format (set to "json" for JSON output). |
| `LOG_LEVEL` | `INFO` | Logging level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR). |
| `MAX_WORKERS` | - | Maximum number of workers for document processing. |
| `OPENRAG_VERSION` | `latest` | OpenRAG Docker image version. |
| `SERVICE_NAME` | `openrag` | Service name for logging. |
| `SESSION_SECRET` | auto-generated | Session management. |

## Langflow runtime overrides

Langflow runtime overrides allow you to modify component settings at runtime without changing the base configuration.

Runtime overrides are implemented through **tweaks** - parameter modifications that are passed to specific Langflow components during flow execution.

For more information on tweaks, see [Input schema (tweaks)](https://docs.langflow.org/concepts-publish#input-schema).

## Default values and fallbacks

When no environment variables or configuration file values are provided, OpenRAG uses default values.
These values can be found in the code base at the following locations.

### OpenRAG configuration defaults

These values are defined in [`config_manager.py` in the OpenRAG repository](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/src/config/config_manager.py).

### System configuration defaults

These fallback values are defined in [`settings.py` in the OpenRAG repository](https://github.com/langflow-ai/openrag/blob/main/src/config/settings.py).