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Environment Variables

Environment variables are a crucial part of configuring your Envio indexer. They allow you to manage sensitive information and configuration settings without hardcoding them in your codebase.

Naming Convention​

All environment variables used by Envio must be prefixed with ENVIO_. This naming convention:

  • Prevents conflicts with other environment variables
  • Makes it clear which variables are used by the Envio indexer
  • Ensures consistency across different environments

Example Environment Variables​

Here are some commonly used environment variables:

# Blockchain RPC URL
ENVIO_RPC_URL=https://arbitrum.direct.dev/your-api-key

# Starting block number for indexing
ENVIO_START_BLOCK=12345678

# Coingecko API key
ENVIO_COINGECKO_API_KEY=api-key

Setting Environment Variables​

Local Development​

For local development, you can set environment variables in several ways:

  1. Using a .env file in your project root:
# .env
ENVIO_RPC_URL=https://arbitrum.direct.dev/your-api-key
ENVIO_START_BLOCK=12345678
  1. Directly in your terminal:
export ENVIO_RPC_URL=https://arbitrum.direct.dev/your-api-key

Hosted Service​

When using the Envio Hosted Service, you can configure environment variables through the Envio platform's dashboard. Remember that all variables must still be prefixed with ENVIO_.

For more information about environment variables in the hosted service, see the Hosted Service documentation.

Configuration File​

For use of environment variables in your configuration file, read the docs here: Configuration File.

Best Practices​

  1. Never commit sensitive values: Always use environment variables for sensitive information like API keys and database credentials
  2. Never commit or use private keys: Never commit or use private keys in your codebase
  3. Use descriptive names: Make your environment variable names clear and descriptive
  4. Document your variables: Keep a list of required environment variables in your project's README
  5. Use different values: Use different environment variables for development, staging, and production environments
  6. Validate required variables: Check that all required environment variables are set before starting your indexer

Troubleshooting​

If you encounter issues with environment variables:

  1. Verify that all required variables are set
  2. Check that variables are prefixed with ENVIO_
  3. Ensure there are no typos in variable names
  4. Confirm that the values are correctly formatted

For more help, see our Troubleshooting Guide.