Environment variables

Scope

Use this page when:

Moltbot pulls environment variables from multiple sources. The rule is never override existing values.

Process environment (what the Gateway process already has from the parent shell/daemon).
.env in the current working directory (dotenv default; does not override).
Global .env at ~/.moltbot/.env (aka $MOLTBOT_STATE_DIR/.env; does not override).
Config env block in ~/.moltbot/moltbot.json (applied only if missing).
Optional login-shell import (env.shellEnv.enabled or MOLTBOT_LOAD_SHELL_ENV=1), applied only for missing expected keys.

If the config file is missing entirely, step 4 is skipped; shell import still runs if enabled.

Two equivalent ways to set inline env vars (both are non-overriding):

{
  env: {
    OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-...",
    vars: {
      GROQ_API_KEY: "gsk-..."
    }
  }
}

env.shellEnv runs your login shell and imports only missing expected keys:

{
  env: {
    shellEnv: {
      enabled: true,
      timeoutMs: 15000
    }
  }
}

Env var equivalents:

You can reference env vars directly in config string values using ${VAR_NAME} syntax:

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      "vercel-gateway": {
        apiKey: "${VERCEL_GATEWAY_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}