Environment Variables & .env¶

GTB supports configuration via environment variables, which is the preferred way to handle sensitive data like API keys and tokens during local development and in CI/CD.

Automatic Environment Mapping¶

Any key in your config.yaml can be overridden by an environment variable. The mapping follows these rules: 1. Prefix: None (direct mapping). 2. Separator: Dots (.) in config keys are replaced with underscores (_). 3. Case: Environment variables are case-insensitive but typically written in UPPER_CASE.

Example: - Config: ai.provider -> Env: AI_PROVIDER - Config: auth.github.token -> Env: AUTH_GITHUB_TOKEN

Local Development with .env¶

To simplify local development, GTB automatically looks for a .env file in the current working directory. If found, it loads these variables into the process environment before initializing the configuration.

Example .env file:¶

# AI Configuration
AI_PROVIDER=openai
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-xxxxxxxxxxxx

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=debug

# Feature Flags
AUTH_SKIP_LOGIN=true

Security Best Practices¶

# .gitignore
.env
.env.*
!.env.example

Common Environment Variables¶