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Environment Variables

This page documents all environment variables that can be used to configure HolmesGPT behavior.

AI Provider Configuration

OpenAI

  • OPENAI_API_KEY - API key for OpenAI models
  • OPENAI_API_BASE - Custom base URL for OpenAI-compatible APIs (e.g., LiteLLM proxy, local inference servers). See OpenAI-Compatible for details.

Anthropic

  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY - API key for Anthropic Claude models

Google

  • GEMINI_API_KEY - API key for Google Gemini models
  • GOOGLE_API_KEY - Alternative API key for Google services

Azure OpenAI

  • AZURE_API_KEY - API key for Azure OpenAI service
  • AZURE_API_BASE - Base URL for Azure OpenAI endpoint
  • AZURE_API_VERSION - API version to use (e.g., "2024-02-15-preview")

AWS Bedrock

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - AWS access key ID
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - AWS secret access key
  • AWS_DEFAULT_REGION - AWS region for Bedrock

Google Vertex AI

  • VERTEXAI_PROJECT - Google Cloud project ID
  • VERTEXAI_LOCATION - Vertex AI location (e.g., "us-central1")
  • GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS - Path to service account key JSON file

LLM Tool Calling Configuration

HOLMES_DISABLE_STRICT_TOOL_CALLS

Default: false

When set to true, disables strict tool calling for all models. By default, strict mode is enabled universally — HolmesGPT sets strict: true and additionalProperties: false on all tool schemas. This prevents LLMs from hallucinating parameter names or sending malformed arguments.

Tools with dynamic-key parameters (additionalProperties with a schema, e.g., filter maps) are automatically excluded from strict mode on a per-tool basis, since both OpenAI and Anthropic require additionalProperties: false on all objects in strict mode.

Example: 

export HOLMES_DISABLE_STRICT_TOOL_CALLS=true

TOOL_SCHEMA_NO_PARAM_OBJECT_IF_NO_PARAMS

Default: false

When set to true, removes the parameters object from tool schemas when a tool has no parameters. This is specifically required for Google Gemini models which don't expect a parameters object for parameterless functions.

Example: 

export TOOL_SCHEMA_NO_PARAM_OBJECT_IF_NO_PARAMS=true

Note: This setting is typically only needed when using Gemini models. Other providers handle empty parameter objects correctly.

SSL/TLS

CERTIFICATE

Base64-encoded custom CA certificate for outbound HTTPS requests. When set, the certificate is appended to the default CA bundle so that HolmesGPT trusts your private CA for all connections (LLM APIs, Elasticsearch, Prometheus, etc.).

export CERTIFICATE="$(base64 -w0 /path/to/ca.crt)"

certificate: "<base64-encoded CA cert>"

holmes:
  certificate: "<base64-encoded CA cert>"

HolmesGPT Configuration

MODEL_LIST_FILE_LOCATION

Path to a YAML file that defines named model configurations. When set, you can reference models by name using --model=<name> in the CLI or the model parameter in the HTTP API, instead of specifying the full model identifier and credentials each time.

Example: 

export MODEL_LIST_FILE_LOCATION="/path/to/model_list.yaml"

See Using Multiple Providers for the model list file format and usage.

HOLMES_CONFIG_PATH

Path to a custom HolmesGPT configuration file. If not set, defaults to ~/.holmes/config.yaml.

Example: 

export HOLMES_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/custom/config.yaml"

HOLMES_LOG_LEVEL

Controls the logging verbosity of HolmesGPT.

Values: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL Default: INFO

Example: 

export HOLMES_LOG_LEVEL="DEBUG"

HOLMES_CACHE_DIR

Directory for caching HolmesGPT data and temporary files.

HOLMES_PASSTHROUGH_BLOCKED_HEADERS

Default: "authorization,cookie,set-cookie"

Comma-separated list of HTTP header names that should not be forwarded from incoming requests to toolsets via request_context. Case-insensitive.

Example: 

# Also block a custom internal header
export HOLMES_PASSTHROUGH_BLOCKED_HEADERS="authorization,cookie,set-cookie,x-internal-only"

See HTTP Header Propagation for details.

Data Source Configuration

Prometheus

  • PROMETHEUS_URL - URL of the Prometheus server

Confluence

  • CONFLUENCE_API_URL - Base URL of Confluence instance (e.g., https://mycompany.atlassian.net)
  • CONFLUENCE_USER - User email (Cloud) or username (Data Center) for authentication
  • CONFLUENCE_API_KEY - API token (Cloud) or password (Data Center)
  • CONFLUENCE_PAT - Personal Access Token (Data Center, used with auth_type: bearer)

GitHub

  • GITHUB_TOKEN - Personal access token for GitHub API

Datadog

  • DATADOG_APP_KEY - Datadog application key
  • DATADOG_API_KEY - Datadog API key

AWS

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - AWS access key (also used for AWS toolset)
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - AWS secret key (also used for AWS toolset)
  • AWS_DEFAULT_REGION - Default AWS region

MongoDB Atlas

  • MONGODB_ATLAS_PUBLIC_KEY - Public key for MongoDB Atlas API
  • MONGODB_ATLAS_PRIVATE_KEY - Private key for MongoDB Atlas API

Slab

  • SLAB_API_KEY - API key for Slab integration

Testing and Development

RUN_LIVE

Enables live execution of commands in tests. Defaults to true.

Example: 

export RUN_LIVE=true

MODEL

Override the default LLM model for testing.

Example: 

export MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"

CLASSIFIER_MODEL

Model to use for scoring test answers (defaults to MODEL if not set). Required when using Anthropic models as the primary model since Anthropic models cannot be used as classifiers.

Example: 

export CLASSIFIER_MODEL="gpt-4.1"

ITERATIONS

Number of times to run each test for reliability testing.

Example: 

export ITERATIONS=10

BRAINTRUST_API_KEY

API key for Braintrust integration to track test results.

BRAINTRUST_ORG

Braintrust organization name (default: "robustadev").

EXPERIMENT_ID

Custom experiment name for tracking test runs in Braintrust.

ASK_HOLMES_TEST_TYPE

Controls message building flow in ask_holmes tests: - cli (default) - Uses CLI-style message building - server - Uses server-style message building with ChatRequest

See Also