Environment Variables¶

Reference for environment variables that k13d currently reads.

Default config paths are:

Platform	Default config path
Linux	`${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/k13d/config.yaml`
macOS	`~/.config/k13d/config.yaml`
Windows	`%AppData%\\k13d\\config.yaml`

Config & Startup¶

Variable	Description	Default
`K13D_CONFIG`	Override `config.yaml` path	`~/.config/k13d/config.yaml` on macOS, `<XDG config home>/k13d/config.yaml` otherwise
`K13D_WEB`	Start in Web UI mode	`false`
`K13D_PORT`	Web server port	`8080`
`K13D_NAMESPACE`	Initial namespace	cluster default
`K13D_ALL_NAMESPACES`	Start with all namespaces	`false`
`KUBECONFIG`	Kubeconfig path used by client-go	client-go default
`K13D_KUBECTL_PATH`	Absolute path override for the `kubectl` binary used by AI tool execution	auto-discover from PATH/common locations
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`	XDG config base directory override	platform default

Authentication¶

Variable	Description	Default
`K13D_AUTH_MODE`	`token`, `local`, `ldap`, `oidc`	`token`
`K13D_NO_AUTH`	Disable authentication	`false`
`K13D_USERNAME`	Default admin username for local auth	`admin`
`K13D_PASSWORD`	Default admin password for local auth	random if omitted
`K13D_JWT_SECRET`	JWT signing secret	auto-generated if omitted
`K13D_DEFAULT_ROLE`	Default TUI RBAC role	`admin`
`K13D_CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	Extra allowed CORS origins	none

Storage¶

Variable	Description	Default
`K13D_DB_PATH`	SQLite database path	`<XDG config home>/k13d/audit.db`
`K13D_NO_DB`	Disable DB-backed persistence	`false`

Generic LLM Overrides¶

These variables override config.yaml values directly:

Variable	Description
`K13D_LLM_PROVIDER`	Active LLM provider
`K13D_LLM_MODEL`	Active model
`K13D_LLM_ENDPOINT`	Custom API endpoint
`K13D_LLM_API_KEY`	API key

Embedded LLM Removal¶

Embedded LLM support has been removed from the runtime.

Use K13D_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama with OLLAMA_HOST for local inference.
Old K13D_EMBEDDED_* and K13D_DOWNLOAD_MODEL variables are no longer recognized.

Provider-Specific Fallbacks¶

If api_key or endpoint is not set in config.yaml, the provider factory also checks:

Variable	Used For
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	`openai`, fallback for `upstage`/`solar`
`LITELLM_API_KEY`	`litellm`
`LITELLM_ENDPOINT`	`litellm` endpoint fallback
`LITELLM_BASE_URL`	`litellm` endpoint fallback alias
`UPSTAGE_API_KEY`	`upstage` / `solar`
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	`anthropic`
`GOOGLE_API_KEY`	`gemini`
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	`azopenai` / `azure`
`AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT`	`azopenai` / `azure` endpoint
`OLLAMA_HOST`	`ollama` endpoint fallback
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	`bedrock`
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	`bedrock`
`AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`	`bedrock`
`AWS_REGION`	`bedrock`

Examples¶

Web UI With Local Auth¶

export K13D_WEB=true
export K13D_AUTH_MODE=local
export K13D_USERNAME=admin
export K13D_PASSWORD=changeme
k13d

OpenAI Via Environment Only¶

export K13D_LLM_PROVIDER=openai
export K13D_LLM_MODEL=gpt-4o
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key
k13d --web --auth-mode local

Ollama¶

export K13D_LLM_PROVIDER=ollama
export K13D_LLM_MODEL=gpt-oss:20b
export OLLAMA_HOST=localhost:11434
k13d

LiteLLM Gateway¶

If you run LiteLLM with Docker, prefer a pinned stable image tag such as ghcr.io/berriai/litellm:v1.82.3-stable.patch.2 instead of a floating latest tag.

export K13D_LLM_PROVIDER=litellm
export K13D_LLM_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini
export LITELLM_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4000
export LITELLM_API_KEY=your-master-key # optional if proxy auth is disabled
k13d --web

Custom Config Path¶

export K13D_CONFIG=/etc/k13d/config.yaml
k13d --web

Notes¶

config.yaml values support shell-style placeholders such as ${OPENAI_API_KEY}.
Environment variables override values loaded from config.yaml.
Web UI startup logs print Config File, Config Path Source, and Env Overrides, which is useful when debugging unexpected config values.
K13D_AUTH_MODE=ldap and K13D_AUTH_MODE=oidc select those auth paths, but the stock binary does not yet expose every provider-specific LDAP/OIDC field as environment variables.
Variables not listed here are not currently wired into the runtime.