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Overview

Environment variables are used to configure your agent without hardcoding sensitive information. RunAgent provides secure methods for managing environment variables across development and production.

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Local Development

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Using .env Files

Create a .env file in your project root: 
# .env
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://localhost/mydb
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379
DEBUG=true
LOG_LEVEL=info
Load in your agent: 
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

# Load environment variables
load_dotenv()

# Access variables
api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
debug = os.getenv("DEBUG", "false").lower() == "true"

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Best Practices

  1. Never commit .env files 
    # .gitignore
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local
  2. Provide .env.example 
    # .env.example
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://localhost/mydb
DEBUG=false
  3. Validate required variables 
    required_vars = ["OPENAI_API_KEY", "DATABASE_URL"]
missing = [var for var in required_vars if not os.getenv(var)]

if missing:
    raise ValueError(f"Missing required environment variables: {missing}")

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Configuration in runagent.config.json

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Dynamic Substitution

Use ${VAR_NAME} syntax for runtime substitution: 
{
  "env_vars": {
    "OPENAI_API_KEY": "${OPENAI_API_KEY}",
    "MODEL_NAME": "gpt-4",
    "TEMPERATURE": "${TEMPERATURE:-0.7}"
  }
}

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Variable Types

  1. Dynamic variables - Loaded from environment 
    "API_KEY": "${API_KEY}"
  2. Static values - Hardcoded (non-sensitive only) 
    "MODEL_VERSION": "v1.0"
  3. With defaults (coming soon) 
    "TIMEOUT": "${TIMEOUT:-30}"

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Production Deployment

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Setting Variables

When deploying, set environment variables: 
# Local deployment
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-... runagent deploy . --local

# Cloud deployment (coming soon)
runagent deploy . \
  --env OPENAI_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY \
  --env DATABASE_URL=$DATABASE_URL

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Security Best Practices

  1. Use secret management services
    • AWS Secrets Manager
    • Google Secret Manager
    • Azure Key Vault
    • HashiCorp Vault
  2. Rotate keys regularly
    • Set expiration reminders
    • Use versioned secrets
    • Update without downtime
  3. Limit scope
    • Use read-only credentials where possible
    • Create service-specific API keys
    • Apply principle of least privilege

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Common Patterns

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Configuration Classes

# config.py
import os
from dataclasses import dataclass

@dataclass
class Config:
    openai_api_key: str
    model_name: str = "gpt-4"
    temperature: float = 0.7
    max_tokens: int = 1000
    
    @classmethod
    def from_env(cls):
        return cls(
            openai_api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
            model_name=os.getenv("MODEL_NAME", "gpt-4"),
            temperature=float(os.getenv("TEMPERATURE", "0.7")),
            max_tokens=int(os.getenv("MAX_TOKENS", "1000"))
        )

# Usage
config = Config.from_env()

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Environment-Specific Settings

# settings.py
import os

ENV = os.getenv("ENVIRONMENT", "development")

CONFIGS = {
    "development": {
        "debug": True,
        "log_level": "DEBUG",
        "cache_enabled": False
    },
    "staging": {
        "debug": False,
        "log_level": "INFO",
        "cache_enabled": True
    },
    "production": {
        "debug": False,
        "log_level": "WARNING",
        "cache_enabled": True
    }
}

settings = CONFIGS[ENV]

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Validation

# validate_env.py
import os
import sys

def validate_environment():
    errors = []
    
    # Required variables
    required = {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "OpenAI API key",
        "DATABASE_URL": "Database connection string"
    }
    
    for var, description in required.items():
        if not os.getenv(var):
            errors.append(f"Missing {description} ({var})")
    
    # Validate formats
    api_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY", "")
    if api_key and not api_key.startswith("sk-"):
        errors.append("Invalid OpenAI API key format")
    
    if errors:
        print("Environment validation failed:")
        for error in errors:
            print(f"  - {error}")
        sys.exit(1)

# Run validation on startup
validate_environment()

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Special Variables

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RunAgent System Variables

VariableDescriptionDefault
RUNAGENT_LOG_LEVELLogging levelINFO
RUNAGENT_TIMEOUTRequest timeout30
RUNAGENT_MAX_RETRIESRetry attempts3

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Framework-Specific

# LangChain
os.environ["LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2"] = "true"
os.environ["LANGCHAIN_API_KEY"] = "..."

# OpenAI
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "..."
os.environ["OPENAI_ORGANIZATION"] = "..."

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Troubleshooting

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Variable Not Found

# Debug which variables are available
print("Available environment variables:")
for key, value in os.environ.items():
    if key.startswith("RUNAGENT_") or key in ["OPENAI_API_KEY"]:
        print(f"{key}={value[:5]}...")  # Show only first 5 chars

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Loading Order

  1. System environment variables
  2. .env file (local development)
  3. RunAgent configuration (deployment)
  4. Runtime overrides

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Common Issues

  1. Quotes in .env files 
    # Wrong
API_KEY="sk-abc123"

# Correct
API_KEY=sk-abc123
  2. Spaces around equals 
    # Wrong
API_KEY = sk-abc123

# Correct
API_KEY=sk-abc123
  3. Multiline values 
    # Use quotes for multiline
PROMPT="This is a
multiline prompt"

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See Also