Files
app/docs/reference/configuration.md
T
stroblmeandClaude Fable 5 fea57064f9 Run node code on the venv Fluksio was installed into
The workflow this serves: make a venv, install what you work with, then `pip
install fluksio` into the same one. Building a second environment beside it
was exactly wrong — the packages the nodes need are already here, and the
Modules screen was asking for them a second time.

`NODE_VENV=auto` (the default) adopts that venv. It declines in the three
cases where adopting would be wrong: `managed` says otherwise, a managed venv
already exists and may hold packages somebody installed on purpose, or the
engine is not running from a venv at all. The images set `managed`, since the
venv in them holds the app and nothing of anybody else's.

An adopted venv is never written to. `uv pip sync` makes a venv hold exactly
the manifest, so pointed at somebody's own environment it uninstalls their
work and the engine with it — `sync()` refuses outright and `reconcile()`
returns before it can be called at startup, which is where that would have
happened first. The Modules screen lists what is installed and drops its
editor; `pip` is how that environment changes.

`fluksio serve` now names the interpreter node code runs on, which is the
thing a data scientist most needs to know at that moment. `fluksio-worker`
already defaulted `--python` to its own interpreter, so a GPU box works the
same way — that was only ever undocumented.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_012ue1tkFWB1bcGy3aWhCKpU
2026-08-24 10:35:13 +02:00

172 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown

# Configuration
Every setting comes from the environment, or from an env file. Which file
depends on how the installation was started:
| Started with | Reads |
|---|---|
| `fluksio serve` | `env` inside the data directory (`$FLUKSIO_ENV_FILE`) |
| the Docker stack | `.env` beside `docker/` |
Anything already exported wins over the file.
## Storage
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `DATA_DIR` | `flow-data` (`~/.fluksio` via the CLI) | everything below derives from this |
| `DATABASE_URL` | SQLite in `DATA_DIR` | any SQLAlchemy URL |
| `FLOWS_DIR` | `$DATA_DIR/flows` | the git repository holding flows |
| `SECRETS_FILE` | `$DATA_DIR/secrets.enc` | encrypted credentials, deliberately outside the repo |
| `ALERTS_FILE` | `$DATA_DIR/alerts.json` | channels and rules |
| `PANELS_FILE` | `$DATA_DIR/panels.json` | wall-panel pairings |
| `OAUTH_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE` | `$DATA_DIR/oauth-key.pem` | signs agent and worker tokens |
| `CLOUD_CONFIG_FILE` | `$DATA_DIR/cloud.json` | the portal enrolment, if any |
| `NODE_VENV` | `auto` | which interpreter node code runs on — see below |
Set `DATA_DIR` and the rest follow. Set one explicitly and it wins — which is
what the container images do to pin everything onto `/data`.
`NODE_VENV` is the exception, being about an environment rather than a path:
| Value | What node code runs on |
|---|---|
| `auto` (default) | the venv Fluksio was installed into, when it was installed into one and there is no venv of its own already built. `pip install fluksio` beside your own packages is this case, and the packages are then already there — the Modules screen turns read-only, because that environment is not Fluksio's to install into. |
| `managed` | a venv the engine builds under `DATA_DIR` and owns, which the Modules screen installs into with `uv pip sync`. The container images set this: the venv in them holds the app and nothing of anybody else's. |
| a path | that interpreter, or that venv, whatever it is. |
An installation that already has a managed venv keeps it on upgrade under
`auto`, because it may hold packages somebody installed on purpose.
!!! warning "The four files that must be on persistent storage"
`secrets.enc`, `alerts.json`, `panels.json` and `oauth-key.pem` are written
at runtime. In a container, anything not on a volume lands in the writable
layer and is lost on the next rebuild — un-pairing every screen and
revoking every agent.
## State
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `REDIS_HOST` | unset | without it, flow state lives in memory and does not survive a restart |
| `REDIS_PORT` | `6379` | |
Flow state is the last value of every message, node memory, and the run queue.
Redis here is persistence, not a cache — run it with append-only persistence
on.
## Identity and access
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `SECRET_KEY` | generated | signs sessions and derives the secrets-store key |
| `ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES` | `11520` (8 days) | |
| `FIRST_SUPERUSER` | — | absent means the CLI creates one on first run |
| `FIRST_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD` | — | absent means one is generated and printed once |
| `DOMAIN` | `localhost` | what the API and OAuth issuer are built from |
| `FRONTEND_HOST` | `http://localhost:5173` | used in mails, OAuth metadata and panel pairing links |
| `BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS` | `[]` | comma-separated; `FRONTEND_HOST` is always allowed |
## Where the interface looks for the API
The dashboard is a static bundle, so this one is a **build** argument of the
`frontend` image rather than a setting the running stack reads.
| Argument | Used by | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| `VITE_API_URL` | `frontend` at build time | the address the interface calls |
The compose stack takes it from `.env`, falling back to `https://api.${DOMAIN}`.
`scripts/setup.sh` writes it there with the scheme `ENVIRONMENT` implies, so a
local build calls `http://` and does not fail a certificate check nothing is
there to satisfy.
Empty is the useful value: the interface then addresses the API relative to
whichever origin served the page, so one image answers on a hostname, on a
`http://<host-ip>:<port>`, and through an ssh tunnel alike — and no origin has
to be added to `BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS`, because there is only one.
`docker/compose.lan.yml` builds it that way and puts an `/api` proxy in front
of the backend to complete it; see
[getting started](../getting-started/facility-automation.md#on-your-own-network-by-address).
Set it to an absolute URL only when the API genuinely lives somewhere else, and
remember it is fixed at build time: changing it means rebuilding that image.
!!! danger "Rotating `SECRET_KEY`"
The secrets store is encrypted with a key derived from it. Change it and
the store stops decrypting, and every session is signed out. Re-enter your
secrets, or plan the rotation properly.
## Environment
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `ENVIRONMENT` | `local` | `local`, `staging` or `production` |
| `PRIVATE_API_ENABLED` | `false` | unauthenticated test-only endpoints; needs `ENVIRONMENT=local` too |
| `TZ` | `UTC` | the timezone every schedule is written in |
`TZ` is the container's own, not a setting the code reads: an `inject` or a
`delay` with a cron expression fires on local time. Left at `UTC`, "off at
02:00" means two in the morning UTC, which in most of the world is neither two
o'clock nor the same hour in summer as in winter. Set it to where the
installation is.
`production` closes `/docs`, `/redoc` and the OpenAPI document, because the
schema enumerates every endpoint the installation serves — including the paths
webhook nodes mounted at runtime. It also turns a `changethis` secret from a
warning into a refusal to start.
## The engine
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `FLOW_MAX_WORKERS` | `4` | node-code subprocesses run in parallel |
| `FLOW_NODE_TIMEOUT` | `30.0` | seconds a node may run, unless it sets its own |
| `OBS_RETENTION_DAYS` | `30` | how long metrics, events and run records are kept |
## Agents
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `MCP_ENABLED` | `false` | opens the `/mcp` endpoint **and** OAuth client registration |
| `MCP_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES` | `60` | an agent's token is a bearer secret held by a program |
| `MCP_REFRESH_EXPIRE_DAYS` | `30` | |
| `OAUTH_CODE_EXPIRE_SECONDS` | `60` | |
See [Agents over MCP](../code/agents.md).
## Mail
Needed for password-reset mails. Without `SMTP_HOST` and `EMAILS_FROM_EMAIL`,
mail is simply off.
| Variable | Default |
|---|---|
| `SMTP_HOST` | — |
| `SMTP_PORT` | `587` |
| `SMTP_USER` / `SMTP_PASSWORD` | — |
| `SMTP_TLS` / `SMTP_SSL` | `true` / `false` |
| `EMAILS_FROM_EMAIL` | — |
| `EMAILS_FROM_NAME` | `Fluksio` |
| `EMAIL_RESET_TOKEN_EXPIRE_HOURS` | `48` |
## Monitoring
| Variable | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `SENTRY_DSN` | — | error reporting, if you want it |
## Health check
`GET /api/v1/utils/health/` is a *deep* check: it fails when the event loop is
wedged or the state backend is gone, not just when the process is up. That is
what the container healthcheck probes, and what an autoheal sidecar restarts
on.
## See also
- [The `fluksio` command](../code/cli.md) — what the data directory holds
- [Getting started: facility automation](../getting-started/facility-automation.md)