Runtime environment variables

These variables configure Elide. Programs also see them in process.env. For application dotenv files, Java properties, file selection, and encryption, see Environment and properties.

Variable	Purpose
`ELIDE_HOME`	Install directory for Elide versions. Default `$XDG_DATA_HOME/elide` or `~/.local/share/elide`.
`ELIDE_AUTO_INSTALL`	`1` downloads a pinned `.elideversion` without asking.
`ELIDE_LOCALE`	CLI locale, as `--locale`.
`ELIDE_LOG`	Log filter, e.g. `debug`.
`ELIDE_LOG_STYLE`	Log color: `auto`, `always`, or `never`.
`ELIDE_ERROR_FORMAT`	`plain` forces plain uncaught-error output, as `--error-format=plain`.
`ELIDE_REPL_HISTORY`	REPL history database. Default `~/.local/share/elide/repl/history.db` (Linux).
`ELIDE_EDITOR`	`code` or `idea` links error locations to VS Code or IntelliJ. Uses `EDITOR` if unset.
`ELIDE_CRASH_ROOT`	Directory for crash reports.
`ELIDE_AGENT`	`1` forces agent output; `0` turns agent detection off. See AI Agents.
`ELIDE_MCP_TOKEN`	Token for `elide mcp --mode http`. Random if unset.
`ELIDE_DEFER_EXIT`	Linux: `0` makes the process free its memory before it exits.
`ELIDE_SYS_TMP`	Set by Elide: the system temporary directory.
`ELIDE_HTTP_USER_AGENT`	`User-Agent` for `fetch`. Default `Elide/<version>`.
`ELIDE_HTTP_NATIVE_WORKERS`	`v2` transport workers for a server outside an application context (default cores ÷ 4, 1 to 8). `run`, `serve` and `dev` ignore it; their I/O threads follow the context count.
`ELIDE_NETTY_EVENT_LOOPS`	HTTP client and server I/O threads. Default `min(4, cores)`.
`ELIDE_TRANSPORT_V2`	`1`, `true`, `yes`, or `on` selects `--transport=v2` when no flag is given.
`ELIDE_HTTP_FALLBACK`	`v1` serves Unix domain socket requests through `nio`; `none` (default) fails them.
`NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED`	`0` disables TLS certificate checks for `fetch`. Warns once.
`NODE_USE_SYSTEM_CA`	`1` trusts the system certificate store for `fetch`.
`NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS`	PEM file of extra CA certificates for `fetch`.
`ELIDE_MAVEN_TLS_EXTRA_CA`	PEM file of extra CA certificates for Maven downloads.
`ELIDE_MAVEN_<NAME>_USERNAME`, `ELIDE_MAVEN_<NAME>_PASSWORD`	Credentials for `elide publish --to <NAME>`; `<NAME>` is the repository name uppercased with other characters turned to `_`. See Maven publishing.
`ELIDE_GPG_PASSPHRASE`	Passphrase for `elide publish` to sign with `gpg` in CI. See Maven publishing.
`ELIDE_PKGST_NPM_ENDPOINT`	npm proxy URL for `--pkgst`. Default `https://npm.pkg.st`.
`ELIDE_PKGST_PYPI_ENDPOINT`	PyPI proxy URL for `--pkgst`. Default `https://pypi.pkg.st`.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE`	Shared build cache URL. See Build cache.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_TOKEN`	Bearer token for the shared cache.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_USERNAME`	Basic-auth user for the shared cache.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_PASSWORD`	Basic-auth password for the shared cache.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_POLICY`	`eager` (default) or `smart`.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_PULL`	`false` stops downloads from the shared cache.
`ELIDE_REMOTE_CACHE_PUSH`	`false` stops uploads to the shared cache.
`ELIDE_BUILD_TELEMETRY`	`1`, a file, or a directory writes a build trace (Build Tasks).
`ELIDE_KOTLINC_ABI_STRIP`	`0` makes `kotlinc --abi-only` keep full code generation instead of stripping function bodies.
`ELIDE_WORKER_CLASSPATH_CACHE`	`0` turns `javac --classpath-cache` off.
`ELIDE_WORKER_CLASSPATH_CACHE_MAX_HANDLES`	Most classpath JARs `javac --classpath-cache` keeps open. Default one per MiB of heap, between 512 and 65536.

Configuration decryption keys

Elide 1.6.2 accepts dotenvx-compatible encrypted values in dotenv and Java properties files.

Variable	Purpose
`DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY`	Private key for decrypting `encrypted:` configuration values.
`DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY_*`	Additional named private keys, such as `DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY_PRODUCTION`. A suffix does not select a configuration file.

Supply keys through the inherited environment or .env.keys beside selected configuration sources. Inherited assignments override matching names in key files. Key files are read only when an effective encrypted value requires decryption; their entries are not exported as application configuration. Inherited key variables retain ordinary inherited-environment visibility. Do not put private-key assignments in application dotenv or properties files: Elide rejects them. DOTENV_PUBLIC_KEY* configuration entries are metadata and are omitted from loaded values.

Keep .env.keys out of version control and use your CI secret store for inherited keys. See Encrypted values for file lookup order, supported formats, and examples.

Diagnostics

Variable	Purpose
`ELIDE_ENGINE_LOG`	Print low-level runtime log records to stderr.
`ELIDE_DIAG_STARTUP`	Print startup phase timings to stderr.
`ELIDE_TRANSPORT_DIAGNOSTICS`	`1` prints network transport statistics to stderr.
`ELIDE_TRACE_PROCESSORS`	`1` prints each Java annotation processor class to stderr as it loads.

Variables from other tools

Variable	Read by	Purpose
`LANGUAGE`, `LC_ALL`, `LC_MESSAGES`, `LANG`	CLI	Locale when `ELIDE_LOCALE` is unset, first one set wins. Give a region (`fr_FR.UTF-8`); a bare language such as `fr` is ignored.
`JDK_JAVAC_OPTIONS`	`elide javac`	Extra `javac` options, as with the JDK’s `javac`. Output then uses `javac`’s own format.
`DOCKER_CONFIG`	Container builds	Directory of the Docker `config.json` whose `auths`, `credHelpers` and `credsStore` supply registry credentials. Default `~/.docker`.
`UV_DEFAULT_INDEX`, `UV_INDEX_URL`	Python installs	PyPI index; when set, `--pkgst` leaves it unchanged.
`NODE_REDIRECT_WARNINGS`	JavaScript	Append process warnings to this file instead of stderr.

OpenTelemetry variables

Elide reads the standard OpenTelemetry variables. They override the opentelemetry block and are overridden by --otel-* flags; see Configuration. Invalid values are ignored.

Variable	Purpose
`OTEL_SDK_DISABLED`	`true` turns telemetry off.
`OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`	`service.name`.
`OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES`	Extra resource attributes, `key=value,...` (percent-encoded values).
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	Base URL; `/v1/<signal>` is appended for HTTP. Creates an `otlp` destination if none exists.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL`	`grpc`, `http/protobuf` (default), or `http/json`.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`	Request headers, `key=value,...`. Treated as secrets.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION`	`gzip` (default) or `none`.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT`	Request timeout in milliseconds. Default `10000`.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_CERTIFICATE`	PEM file of trusted certificates, replacing the system trust store.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE`, `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_CLIENT_KEY`	PEM client certificate chain and private key for mutual TLS. Set both.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_{TRACES,METRICS,LOGS}_*`	Per-signal `ENDPOINT` (used as given), `PROTOCOL`, `HEADERS`, `COMPRESSION`, `TIMEOUT`, `CERTIFICATE`, `CLIENT_CERTIFICATE`, `CLIENT_KEY`.
`OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER`, `OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG`	`always_on`, `always_off`, `traceidratio`, or `parentbased_*` (default `parentbased_always_on`), and the ratio.
`OTEL_PROPAGATORS`	`tracecontext`, `baggage`, or `none`, for the OpenTelemetry API in applications. Default `tracecontext,baggage`. Does not turn on baggage for Elide’s HTTP server and clients.
`OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL`	Metric export interval in milliseconds. Default `60000`.
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_TEMPORALITY_PREFERENCE`	`cumulative` (default) or `delta`.
`OTEL_METRICS_EXEMPLAR_FILTER`	`trace_based` (default: measurements inside a sampled span), `always_on`, or `always_off`.
`OTEL_SEMCONV_EXCEPTION_SIGNAL_OPT_IN`	`logs` records exceptions as log records only; `logs/dup` (default) also adds `exception` span events.
`OTEL_{TRACES,METRICS,LOGS}_EXPORTER`	`none` turns that signal off, for applications and Elide alike. `otlp` with no destination configured sends that signal to `http://localhost:4318` (`4317` for gRPC).

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_* apply to every destination using the otlp provider. Elide adds a shorthand for the provider presets:

Variable	Purpose
`ELIDE_OTEL_PROVIDER`	Adds a destination for a provider: `otlp`, `sentry`, `datadog`, `posthog`, `honeycomb`, or `grafana`.
`ELIDE_OTEL_REGION`	Provider site or region, e.g. `us5` (Datadog), `eu` (PostHog, Honeycomb), `prod-us-east-0` (Grafana).
`ELIDE_OTEL_SIGNALS`	Signals for that destination, e.g. `traces,logs`. Default: the provider’s default signals.
`ELIDE_OTEL_BAGGAGE_INBOUND`	`true` admits served requests’ `baggage` headers. Default `false`.
`ELIDE_OTEL_BAGGAGE_OUTBOUND`	`true` sends the current baggage on outgoing HTTP requests. Default `false`.
`ELIDE_OTEL_BAGGAGE_ALLOW`	Comma-separated baggage keys allowed in both directions. Default: all keys.
`ELIDE_OTEL_PROFILES`	`true` samples guest CPU profiles at 100 per second, or set a frequency such as `49`. Default off.
`ELIDE_OTEL_RUNTIME_INTERNAL_TRACES`	`true` includes high-volume library spans such as Compio task polls. Requires runtime tracing and a configured destination. Default `false`.

Provider credentials come from their usual variables: SENTRY_DSN, DD_API_KEY (and DD_SITE), POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN, HONEYCOMB_API_KEY, and GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_CREDENTIAL (<instance id>:<token>).

Terminal

ELIDE_OTEL_PROVIDER=honeycomb HONEYCOMB_API_KEY=... elide serve app.ts