Directus Docs

# Environment Variables

Environment variables are used for all configuration within Directus projects. They can either be defined as plain environment variables or via the .env file in the root directory, which is created during the installation process.

# General

Variable Description Default Value
CONFIG_PATH Where your config file is located. See Config Files .env
PORT What port to run the API under. 8055
PUBLIC_URL[1] URL where your API can be reached on the web. /
LOG_LEVEL What level of detail to log. One of fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace or silent. info
LOG_STYLE Render the logs human readable (pretty) or as JSON. One of pretty, raw. pretty
MAX_PAYLOAD_SIZE Controls the maximum request body size. Accepts number of bytes, or human readable string. 100kb
ROOT_REDIRECT Where to redirect to when navigating to /. Accepts a relative path, absolute URL, or false to disable. ./admin
SERVE_APP Whether or not to serve the Admin App under /admin. true

[1] The PUBLIC_URL value is used for things like oAuth redirects, forgot-password emails, and logos that needs to be publicly available on the internet.

# Database

Variable Description Default Value
DB_CLIENT Required. What database client to use. One of pg or postgres, mysql, oracledb, mssql, or sqlite3. --
DB_HOST Database host. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql. --
DB_PORT Database port. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql. --
DB_DATABASE Database name. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql. --
DB_USER Database user. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql. --
DB_PASSWORD Database user's password. Required when using pg, mysql, oracledb, or mssql. --
DB_FILENAME Where to read/write the SQLite database. Required when using sqlite3. --
DB_CONNECTION_STRING When using pg, you can submit a connection string instead of individual properties. Using this will ignore any of the other connection settings. --
DB_POOL_* Pooling settings. Passed on to the tarn.js (opens new window) library. --
DB_EXCLUDE_TABLES CSV of tables you want Directus to ignore completely spatial_ref_sys
DB_CHARSET Charset/collation to use in the connection to MySQL/MariaDB UTF8_GENERAL_CI

Additional Database Variables

All DB_* environment variables are passed to the connection configuration of a Knex instance (opens new window). Based on your project's needs, you can extend the DB_* environment variables with any config you need to pass to the database instance.

Pooling

All the DB_POOL_ prefixed options are passed to tarn.js (opens new window) through Knex (opens new window)

# Security

Variable Description Default Value
KEY Unique identifier for the project. --
SECRET Secret string for the project. --
ACCESS_TOKEN_TTL The duration that the access token is valid. 15m
REFRESH_TOKEN_TTL The duration that the refresh token is valid, and also how long users stay logged-in to the App. 7d
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_DOMAIN Which domain to use for the refresh cookie. Useful for development mode. --
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SECURE Whether or not to use a secure cookie for the refresh token in cookie mode. false
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SAME_SITE Value for sameSite in the refresh token cookie when in cookie mode. lax
REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_NAME Name of refresh token cookie . directus_refresh_token
PASSWORD_RESET_URL_ALLOW_LIST List of URLs that can be used as reset_url in /password/request --
USER_INVITE_URL_ALLOW_LIST List of URLs that can be used as invite_url in /users/invite --

Cookie Strictness

Browser are pretty strict when it comes to third-party cookies. If you're running into unexpected problems when running your project and API on different domains, make sure to verify your configuration for REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_NAME, REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SECURE and REFRESH_TOKEN_COOKIE_SAME_SITE.

# Hashing

Variable Description Default Value
HASH_MEMORY_COST How much memory to use when generating hashes, in KiB. 4096 (4 MiB)
HASH_LENGTH The length of the hash function output in bytes. 32
HASH_TIME_COST The amount of passes (iterations) used by the hash function. It increases hash strength at the cost of time required to compute. 3
HASH_PARALLELISM The amount of threads to compute the hash on. Each thread has a memory pool with HASH_MEMORY_COST size. 1 (single thread)
HASH_TYPE The variant of the hash function (0: argon2d, 1: argon2i, or 2: argon2id). 1 (argon2i)
HASH_ASSOCIATED_DATA An extra and optional non-secret value. The value will be included B64 encoded in the parameters portion of the digest. --

Argon2's hashing function is used by Directus for three purposes: 1) hashing user passwords, 2) generating hashes for the Hash field type in collections, and 3) the generate a hash API endpoint (opens new window).

All HASH_* environment variable parameters are passed to the argon2.hash function. See the node-argon2 library options page (opens new window) for reference.

Memory Usage

Modifying HASH_MEMORY_COST and/or HASH_PARALLELISM will affect the amount of memory directus uses when computing hashes; each thread gets HASH_MEMORY_COST amount of memory, so the total additional memory will be these two values multiplied. This may cause out of memory errors, especially when running in containerized environments.

# CORS

Variable Description Default Value
CORS_ENABLED Whether or not to enable the CORS headers. true
CORS_ORIGIN Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. Use true to match the Origin header, or provide a domain or a CSV of domains for specific access true
CORS_METHODS Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Methods header. GET,POST,PATCH,DELETE
CORS_ALLOWED_HEADERS Value for the Access-Control-Allow-Headers header. Content-Type,Authorization
CORS_EXPOSED_HEADERS Value for the Access-Control-Expose-Headers header. Content-Range
CORS_CREDENTIALS Whether or not to send the Access-Control-Allow-Credentials header. true
CORS_MAX_AGE Value for the Access-Control-Max-Age header. 18000

# Rate Limiting

Variable Description Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_ENABLED Whether or not to enable rate limiting on the API. false
RATE_LIMITER_POINTS The amount of allowed hits per duration. 50
RATE_LIMITER_DURATION The time window in seconds in which the points are counted. 1
RATE_LIMITER_STORE Where to store the rate limiter counts. One of memory, redis, or memcache. memory

Based on the RATE_LIMITER_STORE used, you must also provide the following configurations:

# Memory

No additional configuration required.

# Redis

Variable Description Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS Redis connection string, eg: redis://:authpassword@127.0.0.1:6380/4 ---

Alternatively, you can provide the individual connection parameters:

Variable Description Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_HOST Hostname of the Redis instance --
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_PORT Port of the Redis instance --
RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_PASSWORD Password for your Redis instance --

# Memcache

Variable Description Default Value
RATE_LIMITER_MEMCACHE Location of your memcache instance. You can use array: syntax, eg: array:<instance-1>,<instance-2> for multiple memcache instances. ---

Additional Rate Limiter Variables

All RATE_LIMITER_* variables are passed directly to a rate-limiter-flexible instance. Depending on your project's needs, you can extend the above environment variables to configure any of the rate-limiter-flexible options (opens new window).

# Cache

Variable Description Default Value
CACHE_ENABLED Whether or not caching is enabled. false
CACHE_TTL How long the cache is persisted. 30m
CACHE_CONTROL_S_MAXAGE Whether to not to add the s-maxage expiration flag. Set to a number for a custom value 0
CACHE_AUTO_PURGE Automatically purge the cache on create/update/delete actions. false
CACHE_SCHEMA [1] Whether or not the database schema is cached. One of false, true, or a string time value true
CACHE_NAMESPACE How to scope the cache data. directus-cache
CACHE_STORE Where to store the cache data. Either memory, redis, or memcache. memory

[1] CACHE_SCHEMA ignores the CACHE_ENABLED value

Based on the CACHE_STORE used, you must also provide the following configurations:

# Memory

No additional configuration required.

# Redis

Variable Description Default Value
CACHE_REDIS Redis connection string, eg: redis://:authpassword@127.0.0.1:6380/4 ---

Alternatively, you can provide the individual connection parameters:

Variable Description Default Value
CACHE_REDIS_HOST Hostname of the Redis instance --
CACHE_REDIS_PORT Port of the Redis instance --
CACHE_REDIS_PASSWORD Password for your Redis instance --

# Memcache

Variable Description Default Value
CACHE_MEMCACHE Location of your memcache instance. You can use array: syntax, eg: array:<instance-1>,<instance-2> for multiple memcache instances. ---

# Sessions

Sessions are only used in the oAuth authentication flow.

Variable Description Default Value
SESSION_STORE Where to store the session data. Either memory, redis, memcache or database. memory

Based on the SESSION_STORE used, you must also provide the following configurations:

# Memory

No additional configuration required.

# Redis

Variable Description Default Value
SESSION_REDIS Redis connection string, eg: redis://:authpassword@127.0.0.1:6380/4 ---

Alternatively, you can provide the individual connection parameters:

Variable Description Default Value
SESSION_REDIS_HOST Hostname of the Redis instance --
SESSION_REDIS_PORT Port of the Redis instance --
SESSION_REDIS_PASSWORD Password for your Redis instance --

# Memcache

Variable Description Default Value
SESSION_MEMCACHE_HOSTS Location of your memcache instance. You can use array: syntax, eg: array:<instance-1>,<instance-2> for multiple memcache instances. ---

# Database

No additional configuration required.

# File Storage

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_LOCATIONS A CSV of storage locations (eg: local,digitalocean,amazon) to use. You can use any names you'd like for these keys. local

For each of the storage locations listed, you must provide the following configuration:

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_DRIVER Which driver to use, either local, s3, gcs, azure
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ROOT Where to store the files on disk ''

Based on your configured driver, you must also provide the following configurations:

# Local (local)

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ROOT Where to store the files on disk --

# S3 (s3)

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_KEY User key --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_SECRET User secret --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_BUCKET S3 Bucket --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_REGION S3 Region --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ENDPOINT S3 Endpoint s3.amazonaws.com
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ACL S3 ACL --

# Azure (azure)

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_CONTAINER_NAME Azure Storage container --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ACCOUNT_NAME Azure Storage account name --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ACCOUNT_KEY Azure Storage key --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_ENDPOINT Azure URL https://{ACCOUNT_KEY}.blob.core.windows.net

# Google Cloud Storage (gcs)

Variable Description Default Value
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_KEY_FILENAME Path to key file on disk --
STORAGE_<LOCATION>_BUCKET Google Cloud Storage bucket --

If you don't provide any configuration for storage adapters, Directus will default to the following:

STORAGE_LOCATIONS="local"
STORAGE_LOCAL_ROOT="./uploads"

# Assets

Variable Description Default Value
ASSETS_CACHE_TTL How long assets will be cached for in the browser. Sets the max-age value of the Cache-Control header. 30m
ASSETS_TRANSFORM_MAX_CONCURRENT How many file transformations can be done simultaneously 4
ASSETS_TRANSFORM_IMAGE_MAX_DIMENSION The max pixel dimensions size (width/height) that is allowed to be transformed 6000
ASSETS_TRANSFORM_MAX_OPERATIONS The max number of transform operations that is allowed to be processed (excludes saved presets) 5

Image transformations can be fairly heavy on memory usage. If you're using a system with 1GB or less available memory, we recommend lowering the allowed concurrent transformations to prevent you from overflowing your server.

# OAuth

Variable Description Default Value
OAUTH_PROVIDERS CSV of oAuth providers you want to use. --

For each of the OAuth providers you list, you must also provide a number of extra variables. These differ per external service. The following is a list of common required configuration options:

Variable Description Default Value
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_KEY oAuth key (a.k.a. application id) for the external service. --
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_SECRET oAuth secret for the external service. --
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_SCOPE A white-space separated list of privileges directus should ask for. A common value is: openid email. --
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_AUTHORIZE_URL The authorize page URL of the external service --
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_ACCESS_URL The access URL of the external service --
OAUTH_<PROVIDER>_PROFILE_URL Where Directus can fetch the profile information of the authenticated user. --

Directus relies on grant (opens new window) for the handling of the oAuth flow. Grant includes a lot of default values (opens new window) for popular services. For example, if you use apple as one of your providers, you only have to specify the key and secret, as Grant has the rest covered. Checkout the grant repo (opens new window) for more information.

# Extensions

Variable Description Default Value
EXTENSIONS_PATH Path to your local extensions folder. ./extensions

# Email

Variable Description Default Value
EMAIL_FROM Email address from which emails are sent. no-reply@directus.io
EMAIL_TRANSPORT What to use to send emails. One of sendmail, smtp, mailgun. sendmail

Based on the EMAIL_TRANSPORT used, you must also provide the following configurations:

# Sendmail (sendmail)

Variable Description Default Value
EMAIL_SENDMAIL_NEW_LINE What new line style to use in sendmail. unix
EMAIL_SENDMAIL_PATH Path to your sendmail executable. /usr/sbin/sendmail

# SMTP (smtp)

Variable Description Default Value
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST SMTP Host --
EMAIL_SMTP_PORT SMTP Port --
EMAIL_SMTP_USER SMTP User --
EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD SMTP Password --
EMAIL_SMTP_POOL Use SMTP pooling --
EMAIL_SMTP_SECURE Enable TLS --
EMAIL_SMTP_IGNORE_TLS Ignore TLS --

# Mailgun (mailgun)

Variable Description Default Value
EMAIL_MAILGUN_API_KEY Your Mailgun API key. --
EMAIL_MAILGUN_DOMAIN A domain from your Mailgun account (opens new window) --
EMAIL_MAILGUN_HOST Allows you to specify a custom host. api.mailgun.net

# Admin Account

If you're relying on Docker and/or the directus bootstrap CLI command, you can pass the following two environment variables to automatically configure the first user:

Variable Description Default Value
ADMIN_EMAIL The email address of the first user that's automatically created when using directus bootstrap. --
ADMIN_PASSWORD The password of the first user that's automatically created when using directus bootstrap. --

# Telemetry

To more accurately gauge the frequency of installation, version fragmentation, and general size of the userbase, Directus collects little and anonymized data about your environment. You can easily opt-out with the following environment variable:

Variable Description Default Value
TELEMETRY Allow Directus to collect anonymized data about your environment. true

# Type Casting and Nesting

Environment variables are automatically type cast based on the structure of the variable, for example:

PUBLIC_URL="https://example.com"
// "https://example.com"

DB_HOST="3306"
// 3306

CORS_ENABLED="false"
// false

STORAGE_LOCATIONS="s3,local,example"
// ["s3", "local", "example"]

In cases where the environment variables are converted to a configuration object for third party library use, like in DB_* or RATE_LIMITER_REDIS_*, the environment variable will be converted to camelCase. You can use a double underscore (__) for nested objects:

DB_CLIENT="pg"
DB_CONNECTION_STRING="postgresql://postgres:example@127.0.0.1"
DB_SSL__REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED="false"

{
	client: "pg",
	connectionString: "postgresql://postgres:example@127.0.0.1",
	ssl: {
		rejectUnauthorized: false
	}
}

# Environment Syntax Prefix

Directus will attempt to automatically type cast environment variables based on context clues (see above). If you have a specific need for a given type, you can tell Directus what type to use for the given value by prefixing the value with {type}:. The following types are available:

Syntax Prefix Example Output
string string:value "value"
number number:3306 3306
regex regex:\.example\.com$ /\.example\.com$/
array array:https://example.com,https://example2.com
array:string:https://example.com,regex:\.example3\.com$		 ["https://example.com", "https://example2.com"]
["https://example.com", "https://example2.com", /\.example3\.com$/]

# File Based Environment Variables (Docker Secrets)

Any of the environment variable values can be imported from a file, by appending _FILE to the environment variable name. For example: DB_PASSWORD_FILE="/run/secrets/db_password".

This is especially useful when used in conjunction with Docker Secrets, so you can keep sensitive data out of your compose files.

← Config Files →