Files
TREK/wiki/Environment-Variables.md
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jubnl bc10fba389 feat(plugins): TREK_PLUGINS_IGNORE_TREK_RANGE turns the version gate into a warning (#2226)
* feat(plugins): TREK_PLUGINS_IGNORE_TREK_RANGE turns the version gate into a warning

A plugin whose author has not updated its `trek` range for the running TREK can
now be installed, updated and activated when the operator sets
TREK_PLUGINS_IGNORE_TREK_RANGE to a truthy value. Every gate (registry picker,
post-extraction re-check, sideload, dev-link, activation) warns instead of
refusing; a missing range is tolerated the same way; "install latest" takes the
newest published version. The plugin-API version gate is not lifted and the
Discover compatibility verdict stays truthful.

The admin is warned at every step: each bypass is logged, install/upload/link/
update responses carry a `trekRangeBypassed` marker, and both admin panels show
a "Version checks off" pill, an "Install anyway" confirm dialog before a
registry install, the same notice after a path that could not ask first, and a
persistent chip on the row while the plugin runs outside its range.

Nine new i18n keys in every locale; wiki pages updated (Environment-Variables,
Admin-Plugins, Plugin-Development, Security-Hardening).

* refactor(plugins): one useRangeBypass hook behind both admin shells

SonarQube flagged PR 2226 at 10.8% duplicated new code: the range-bypass
logic had been added to the desktop and phone plugin panels as identical
copies. The marker/warning types, the row chip, the "Install anyway" offer,
the dialog copy and the confirm-or-notice state now live in
useRangeBypass (next to useInstanceSettings, the existing shared-logic
precedent); each panel keeps only its own dialog/sheet markup.

* docs(claude): record the SonarQube gate rules and the no-English-placeholder i18n rule

The CI SonarCloud gate (Sonar way, on new code: >=80% coverage, <=3%
duplication, A ratings, hotspots reviewed) was only discoverable by waiting
20-25 minutes for the workflow. The root CLAUDE.md now states the conditions,
the desktop/mobile shell-mirror duplication trap and its shared-hook fix, and
how to check a PR with the sonarqube MCP first; client and server CLAUDE.md
point at it. shared/CLAUDE.md says every locale needs a real translation —
parity cannot tell an English placeholder from a translation.

* docs(claude): keep CLAUDE.md to commands, invariants, gates and philosophy

Verified every concrete claim in the five CLAUDE.md files against the code
and fixed the stale ones: the websocket server is the Nest realtime gateway,
MCP tools live in <domain>.mcp.ts files, the client "native shell" section
described code that was never written, offline maps also prefetch vector
basemaps, plus several renamed files and wrong table names.

Then trimmed everything that drifts on its own: dates, migration history,
counts, and inventories of stores, slices, domains, sync files and CLI
commands. What stays is the commands, the invariants with the file that
enforces each one, what CI actually runs, the reference implementations to
copy, and the rules for new code. Each file now opens with that rule.
2026-09-04 00:43:06 +02:00

49 KiB

Environment Variables

Complete reference for all environment variables TREK reads.

How to Set Variables

  • Docker Compose — use the environment: block or a .env file alongside docker-compose.yml
  • Docker run — pass each variable with -e VARIABLE=value
  • Helm — use env: for plain values and secretEnv: for sensitive values in values.yaml. The chart only passes through the keys it declares (26 in templates/configmap.yaml, 5 in templates/secret.yaml), so a variable that is not one of them is dropped silently — patch it onto the Deployment or add it to the chart
  • Unraid — set in the container template editor
  • Proxmox Community Script — set in /opt/trek/server/.env

Startup Validation

TREK checks almost all of this surface once at boot. A variable that is unset or blank falls back to its documented default; a variable that is present but malformed aborts startup, with an aggregated report naming every offending value:

Invalid environment configuration:
  - PORT="not-a-port": must be a port number (1-65535)
  - SESSION_DURATION="bogus": must be a duration like "1h", "7d" or "30d"

In Docker this crash-loops the container until the value is corrected or removed. Boolean switches accept true/false, 1/0, on/off, yes/no in any casing — anything else counts as malformed. Variables TREK does not know are passed through untouched.

TREK_DB_JOURNAL_MODE and TREK_DB_SYNCHRONOUS are exceptions: they log a warning and fall back instead of aborting, because reset-admin.js — the way back into a locked-out instance — reads the same two variables and has to keep working. The three plugin caps TREK_PLUGIN_AI_PER_DAY, TREK_PLUGIN_NOTIFY_PER_DAY and TREK_PLUGIN_AUDIT_MAX_ROWS are read by the plugin host rather than by the boot schema, so a malformed value there falls back to the default without a warning. NODE_ENV and TZ are not validated at all, so a non-standard value like NODE_ENV=staging still boots.


Core

Variable Description Default
PORT Server port Sources: 3001, Docker: 3000
HOST Bind address for the HTTP server (e.g. 127.0.0.1, 10.0.0.72). Source / Proxmox installs only — do not set this in Docker or any containerized deployment. See note below. all interfaces
NODE_ENV Environment (production / development) production
ENCRYPTION_KEY At-rest encryption key — see resolution order below auto
TZ Timezone for logs, reminders, and cron jobs (e.g. Europe/Berlin) UTC
LOG_LEVEL info = concise user actions; debug = verbose details info
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE Default language on the login page — see supported codes below en
SESSION_DURATION How long a login session stays valid before re-login is required. Used when "Remember me" is unchecked on the login form (the default): applies to the trek_session JWT exp claim, and the cookie is issued as a browser-session cookie (no maxAge, cleared when the browser closes). Accepts ms-style strings: 1h, 12h, 7d, 30d, 90d. Invalid values abort startup — see Startup Validation above. Does not affect the short-lived MFA challenge token or MCP OAuth tokens (those keep their own TTL). 24h
SESSION_DURATION_REMEMBER Session length used when the user ticks "Remember me" on login: a longer-lived JWT exp claim plus a persistent trek_session cookie whose maxAge matches, so the session survives browser restarts. Same ms-style format and the same startup validation as SESSION_DURATION. 30d
ALLOWED_ORIGINS Comma-separated origins for CORS and email notification links same-origin
ALLOW_INTERNAL_NETWORK Allow outbound requests to private/RFC-1918 IPs. Set true if Immich or other integrated services are on your local network. Loopback (127.x) and link-local (169.254.x) addresses remain blocked regardless. false
APP_URL Public base URL (e.g. https://trek.example.com). Required when OIDC is enabled — must match the redirect URI registered with your IdP. Also used as the base URL for email notification links and subscribable calendar feed URLs (the webcal:///https:// links the Subscribe dialog hands to Google/Apple/Outlook). —
TREK_WIKI_DIR Where the in-app Help pages (/help) read their content from. TREK ships this wiki and serves it from disk, so the docs always match the version you are running. You should not need to set this — it is an escape hatch for unusual layouts. If the directory cannot be found, Help falls back to fetching the repository's wiki/ folder from the main branch on GitHub (which can be ahead of the release you are running, and needs outbound network access). the bundled wiki/ directory

HOST — Source and Proxmox installs only

By default TREK binds to all network interfaces (0.0.0.0), which is the correct behaviour inside a container because Docker handles port exposure at the host level. Setting HOST overrides the bind address at the Node.js level.

When to use it: only when running TREK directly on a host (git sources or the Proxmox community script) and you need to restrict which interface the server listens on — for example, to expose TREK only on a LAN interface while keeping it off the public-facing one.

Never set HOST in Docker, Docker Compose, Helm, or Unraid deployments. Use Docker's -p <host-ip>:<host-port>:<container-port> syntax or your orchestrator's port binding instead.

# .env — source / Proxmox installs only
HOST=10.0.0.72   # bind only on this LAN interface
PORT=3001

When HOST is set, the startup banner includes a Host: line confirming the bound address.

ENCRYPTION_KEY — Resolution Order

server/src/config.ts resolves the encryption key in this order:

  1. ENCRYPTION_KEY env var — explicit value, always takes priority. Persisted to data/.encryption_key automatically.
  2. data/.encryption_key file — present on any install that has started at least once.
  3. data/.jwt_secret file — one-time fallback for existing installs upgrading without a pre-set key. The value is immediately persisted to data/.encryption_key so JWT rotation cannot break decryption later.
  4. Auto-generated — fresh install with none of the above; persisted to data/.encryption_key.

Setting ENCRYPTION_KEY explicitly is recommended so you can back it up independently of the data volume.

DEFAULT_LANGUAGE — Supported Codes

You can set DEFAULT_LANGUAGE to any of the 23 languages TREK ships. The currently supported codes are:

Code Language
en English
de Deutsch
es Español
fr Français
hu Magyar
nl Nederlands
br Português (Brasil)
cs Česky
pl Polski
ru Русский
zh 简体中文
zh-TW 繁體中文
it Italiano
tr Türkçe
ar العربية
id Bahasa Indonesia
ja 日本語
ko 한국어
uk Українська
gr Ελληνικά
sv Svenska
vi Tiếng Việt
ca Català

If you set a code that isn't on this list, TREK refuses to start and prints DEFAULT_LANGUAGE="…": must be one of: …. Leave the variable unset to use English (en). This list grows as new translations are added to TREK.


Outbound HTTP(S) Proxy

TREK can route supported outbound HTTP(S) requests through a proxy by setting the standard variables below. Outbound proxying is disabled by default.

Variable Description Default
HTTP_PROXY Proxy URL for outbound HTTP requests —
HTTPS_PROXY Proxy URL for outbound HTTPS requests —
NO_PROXY Comma-separated hosts or domains that should bypass the proxy —

Note: Proxy environment variables apply to requests made through Node.js's default HTTP dispatcher. Requests handled by TREK's SSRF protection use a dedicated dispatcher and do not use the environment proxy.

Container only. Node ignores these variables unless it is started with NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1, and the official image sets that for you. On a source or Proxmox install, and on Helm where the chart's ConfigMap only passes through the keys it knows, set NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 alongside them or nothing will change.

Set NO_PROXY. Without it every request goes to the proxy, including the ones TREK makes to itself, such as the container health check. localhost,127.0.0.1 is a sensible minimum; add your own hosts as needed.


HTTPS / Reverse Proxy

These three variables work together behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy. See Reverse-Proxy for the full explanation.

Variable Description Default
FORCE_HTTPS When true: 301-redirects HTTP→HTTPS, sends HSTS (max-age=31536000), adds CSP upgrade-insecure-requests, forces cookie secure flag. Only useful behind a TLS proxy. Your proxy must send X-Forwarded-Proto: https. false
HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS When true: adds the includeSubDomains directive to the HSTS header, extending HTTPS enforcement to all subdomains. Only effective when HSTS is active (FORCE_HTTPS=true or NODE_ENV=production). Leave false if you run other services on sibling subdomains over plain HTTP. false
TRUST_PROXY Number of trusted proxy hops. Tells Express how far into X-Forwarded-For to look for the real client IP, and where to read X-Forwarded-Proto. Count your hops: with two proxies in front of TREK and TRUST_PROXY=1, the IP on every audit row is the inner proxy's. 0 trusts nothing and always uses the socket address. Not required for the FORCE_HTTPS redirect, which reads the X-Forwarded-Proto header directly — set it for correct client IPs in the audit log, and for the COOKIE_SECURE auto-derivation, which goes through req.secure. 1 (production)
COOKIE_SECURE Controls the secure flag on the trek_session cookie. Auto-derived as true when NODE_ENV=production, when FORCE_HTTPS=true, or when the request itself arrived over TLS on the outermost hop (X-Forwarded-Proto: https with TRUST_PROXY set). Set to false only as an escape hatch for LAN testing without TLS — not recommended in production. auto

Warning: FORCE_HTTPS=true behind a proxy that does not forward X-Forwarded-Proto: https causes a redirect loop — every request looks like plain HTTP to TREK and gets 301'd again. Fix the proxy to send the header. Setting TRUST_PROXY does not help: the redirect accepts the raw X-Forwarded-Proto: https header on its own, whatever trust proxy is set to. (TRUST_PROXY only feeds the second half of the check, req.secure, which additionally covers a proxy chain that sends a comma-joined X-Forwarded-Proto — and production already trusts one hop by default.)


OIDC / SSO

For setup instructions, see OIDC-SSO.

Variable Description Default
OIDC_ISSUER OpenID Connect provider URL (e.g. https://auth.example.com) —
OIDC_CLIENT_ID OIDC client ID —
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET OIDC client secret —
OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME Label shown on the SSO login button SSO
OIDC_ONLY Force SSO-only mode: disables password login and registration, overrides Admin > Settings toggles, cannot be changed at runtime. First SSO login becomes admin on a fresh instance. false
OIDC_ADMIN_CLAIM OIDC claim inspected for the admin role. Only takes effect once OIDC_ADMIN_VALUE is set. groups
OIDC_ADMIN_VALUE Value of the OIDC claim that grants admin role (e.g. app-trek-admins) —
OIDC_SCOPE Space-separated OIDC scopes to request. Fully replaces the default — always include openid email profile plus any extra scopes (e.g. add groups when using OIDC_ADMIN_CLAIM) openid email profile
OIDC_DISCOVERY_URL Override the auto-constructed OIDC discovery endpoint. Required for providers with a non-standard path (e.g. Authentik) —

WebAuthn / Passkeys

Passkey (WebAuthn) login is configured from the Admin panel, but the two cryptographically sensitive values can be pinned via environment variables. Env vars take priority over the corresponding database settings. These values are only ever derived from server-side config — never from request Host / X-Forwarded-Host headers (mirroring OIDC redirect-URI handling).

Variable Description Default
WEBAUTHN_RP_ID Relying-Party ID — the registrable domain passkeys are bound to (e.g. trek.example.com). Overrides the webauthn_rp_id DB setting. When unset, it is derived from the hostname of APP_URL. Bare IP literals (IPv4/IPv6) are rejected. If it cannot be resolved, passkeys are disabled. derived from APP_URL
WEBAUTHN_ORIGINS Comma-separated list of allowed origins for passkey ceremonies (e.g. https://trek.example.com). Overrides the webauthn_origins DB setting; trailing slashes are stripped. When unset and the RP ID is not localhost, a single origin is derived from APP_URL. In dev (RP ID localhost) http://localhost:5173 and http://localhost:3001 are added automatically. derived from APP_URL

Email / SMTP

SMTP settings can be configured via the Admin panel or overridden with environment variables. Env vars take priority over the database values.

Variable Description Default
SMTP_HOST SMTP server hostname (e.g. smtp.example.com) —
SMTP_PORT SMTP server port. Port 465 enables implicit TLS (secure: true); all other ports use STARTTLS or plain. —
SMTP_USER SMTP authentication username —
SMTP_PASS SMTP authentication password —
SMTP_FROM Sender address for outbound emails (e.g. TREK <noreply@example.com>) —
SMTP_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY Set true to disable TLS certificate validation. Useful for self-signed certs on internal SMTP relays — not recommended in production. false

SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, and SMTP_FROM are all required for email delivery to work. SMTP_USER and SMTP_PASS are optional (for unauthenticated relays).


Initial Setup

These variables only take effect on first boot, before any user exists.

Variable Description Default
ADMIN_EMAIL Email for the first admin account admin@trek.local
ADMIN_PASSWORD Password for the first admin account random

Both variables must be set together. If either is omitted, the account is created with email admin@trek.local and a randomly generated password that is printed to the server log. Once any user exists, these variables have no effect.


MCP

For setup instructions, see MCP-Overview.

Variable Description Default
MCP_RATE_LIMIT Max MCP API requests per minute, counted per user and per OAuth client — a user connected from two MCP clients gets this budget twice. Requests made with a static trek_ token or a session JWT carry no client and share one further bucket per user. 300
MCP_MAX_SESSION_PER_USER Max concurrent MCP sessions per user. At the cap the user's least-recently-active session is closed to make room — requests are not rejected. 20
MCP_SESSION_TTL Session idle timeout in seconds (max 86400) 3600
MCP_SSE_KEEPALIVE SSE keep-alive ping interval in seconds — keeps the stream alive through reverse proxies. 0 disables the pings; an open stream still refreshes the session's idle timeout. 25

API Docs

Variable Description Default
TREK_API_DOCS_ENABLED Serve interactive OpenAPI/Swagger docs at /api/docs (raw spec at /api/docs-json). The spec enumerates every route including the admin surface, so it is off by default. false

With the flag on, /api/docs lists every REST endpoint with try-it-out; authorize with a session JWT via the Bearer button (the API accepts Authorization: Bearer <jwt> everywhere as the cookie fallback). Request bodies validated with Zod are documented automatically from the same schemas.


Booking Import (KDE Itinerary)

Variable Description Default
KITINERARY_EXTRACTOR_PATH Full path to the kitinerary-extractor binary. When unset, TREK searches /usr/lib/*/libexec/kf6/kitinerary-extractor and then PATH. Set this if you install the binary to a non-standard location. auto-detected

The official TREK Docker image bundles the binary automatically: on both amd64 and arm64 it installs libkitinerary-bin via apt (Debian trixie) and symlinks it to /usr/local/bin/kitinerary-extractor, which the image also pins via KITINERARY_EXTRACTOR_PATH. When running TREK from source, install libkitinerary-bin (Debian trixie / Ubuntu 25.04+) or download the static binary directly and place it anywhere on PATH. The GET /api/health/features endpoint returns { "bookingImport": true } when the binary is found. The Import button in the Reservations panel is hidden only when neither extractor is available — an instance running the AI Parsing addon still offers it with bookingImport: false.

Booking import can also fall back to an AI model for documents KDE Itinerary can't read. That feature (the AI Parsing addon) is configured entirely in the UI and needs no environment variables — see AI-Booking-Import.


Public Transit (Transitous)

Public-transit routing in the planner is powered by Transitous, a free community MOTIS service — no API key is required. See Transport: Flights, Trains, Cars for the feature itself.

Variable Description Default
TRANSIT_API_URL Base URL of the transit routing API. TREK's server proxies requests to it. Point this at your own self-hosted MOTIS instance if you want zero third-party egress. A trailing slash is stripped. https://api.transitous.org

When left at the default, using the transit feature makes the TREK server send outbound HTTPS requests to api.transitous.org (with an identifying User-Agent, as the Transitous usage policy asks). No transit request is made until a user actually searches for a journey.


Image Search (Unsplash)

TREK can search Unsplash for trip cover images and place images. By default the server queries Unsplash's public web endpoint without an API key, so no configuration is needed on most installs.

Some hosting environments — commonly VPS and datacenter IP ranges (and many Kubernetes clusters) — are blocked or rate-limited by that unauthenticated endpoint, which surfaces in the UI as "Unsplash search unavailable". Configuring a free Unsplash Access Key switches the server to Unsplash's official, authenticated API (api.unsplash.com), which is not subject to that block. See issue #1449.

Variable Description Default
UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY Unsplash Access Key used to authenticate cover/place image search against https://api.unsplash.com. When set, it takes priority over any key configured per-admin in Admin → Settings. When unset, the server falls back to the unauthenticated endpoint (which some datacenter/VPS IPs are blocked from). Get a free key at unsplash.com/developers. unauthenticated endpoint

Two ways to configure it — pick one; the env var wins if both are present:

  1. Environment variable (this page) — instance-wide, ideal for Docker/Helm/Unraid where you already manage config as env.
  2. Admin → Settings → API Keys — paste the key into the Unsplash API Key field. Stored encrypted at rest and used as a fallback for every user when no env var is set. This is the better option if you'd rather not restart the container to change it.

To get a key: create a free account at unsplash.com/developers, register a new application, and copy its Access Key (not the Secret Key). The Unsplash free tier (demo) allows 50 requests/hour, which is ample for cover search.


Storage & Paths

Storage backends and category assignment are configured in Admin: Storage (or a seed-once storage-config.json), not through environment variables. TREK_PLACE_PHOTO_DIR below is unaffected.

Variable Description Default
TREK_PLACE_PHOTO_DIR Directory where cached Google place photos are stored. Created recursively on boot. Set this to point photo storage at a dedicated mounted volume. uploads/photos/google
BACKUP_UPLOAD_LIMIT_MB Maximum compressed size (in MB) of a restore-backup archive that may be uploaded. Raise it if your backups (which include the uploads/ directory) exceed the default. Non-positive or invalid values abort startup. 500
BACKUP_MAX_DECOMPRESSED_MB Maximum decompressed size (in MB) of a restore-backup archive — the zip-bomb guard. Independent of BACKUP_UPLOAD_LIMIT_MB and enforced on both restore paths, so a restore that fits the upload cap can still be refused with Backup exceeds the maximum decompressed size. Raise both when restoring a very large instance. 5120 (5 GB)
TREK_DB_JOURNAL_MODE SQLite journal mode: DELETE, TRUNCATE, PERSIST, MEMORY, WAL or OFF. Set DELETE when the data directory lives on network storage — see below. Values SQLite doesn't know log a warning and fall back. WAL
TREK_DB_SYNCHRONOUS SQLite synchronous level: OFF, NORMAL, FULL or EXTRA. The default follows the journal mode — NORMAL under WAL (what SQLite itself uses there), FULL otherwise, because a rollback journal at NORMAL can lose committed transactions on a power cut. NORMAL / FULL

Running the database on network storage

WAL is the right mode on a local disk and stays the default. It coordinates readers and writers through a shared-memory file (travel.db-shm) and memory mapping, and SQLite's own documentation says that combination is not safe on filesystems that don't implement those primitives properly. In practice that means Azure App Service (Linux), and SMB/NFS volumes mounted from a NAS or a PaaS host. If your data/ directory is one of those, set:

TREK_DB_JOURNAL_MODE=DELETE

The journal mode is written into the database file header, not held per connection, so it survives restarts and applies from the next boot onward. The startup log prints what is actually in effect:

[DB] journal_mode=DELETE, synchronous=FULL

The maintenance tools that open the same file — reset-admin.js and scripts/migrate-encryption.ts — read the same two variables, so run them with the same environment (docker exec into the container does this for you). Otherwise the next key rotation or admin reset would quietly switch the file back to WAL.


Advanced / Tuning

Variable Description Default
IDEMPOTENCY_TTL_SECONDS How long (in seconds) stored idempotency keys are kept before garbage collection. The offline client replays queued mutations with their X-Idempotency-Key on reconnect, so this must exceed the longest expected offline window or a replay could create a duplicate. Invalid values abort startup. 2592000 (30 days)
OVERPASS_URL Custom Overpass API endpoint(s) used by the map's POI "explore" search, comma-separated. When set it replaces the bundled public mirrors — point it at an internal or self-hosted Overpass instance when the public mirrors are unreachable from your network (e.g. firewalled/locked-down egress in a Kubernetes cluster). Entries that aren't valid http(s) URLs are ignored. If you don't run your own Overpass but the public mirrors throttle TREK, first make sure APP_URL (or ALLOWED_ORIGINS) is set: that alone gives outbound Overpass/Nominatim requests a unique User-Agent, which the public mirrors rate-limit far less. bundled public mirrors
OVERPASS_TIMEOUT_MS Per-endpoint timeout (in milliseconds) for Overpass POI requests. Endpoints race in parallel and one that hasn't answered within this window is abandoned so a faster mirror can win. Raise it if you run a slow self-hosted Overpass instance. Invalid values abort startup. 12000

Demo Mode

Demo mode runs TREK as a public, self-resetting sandbox. Not intended for regular deployments.

Variable Description Default
DEMO_MODE Enable demo mode: seeds example data, resets the database hourly, exposes the demo-login endpoint, and blocks destructive mutations (password change, account deletion, uploads) for demo users. Logs a security warning at startup if combined with NODE_ENV=production. false
DEMO_ADMIN_USER Username of the seeded demo admin account. admin
DEMO_ADMIN_EMAIL Email of the seeded demo admin account. admin@trek.app
DEMO_ADMIN_PASS Initial password for the seeded demo admin (bcrypt-hashed at seed time). admin12345

The DEMO_ADMIN_* variables only take effect when DEMO_MODE=true, and only at the moment the demo data is first seeded.


Plugins

The plugin system is on by default. The runtime and the Admin → Plugins panel are available out of the box, but installed plugins still have to be activated one by one — so no third-party code runs until an admin turns a specific plugin on. Set TREK_PLUGINS_ENABLED=false to switch the whole system off. See Plugins for the full system and Plugin-Permissions for the isolation model.

Variable Description Default
TREK_PLUGINS_ENABLED Master switch for the plugin system. Enabled unless set to false (also accepts 0, off, no, case-insensitive). Turning it off is a kill switch — installed plugins stay on disk but nothing runs. enabled
TREK_PLUGINS_DIR Directory where installed plugin code is stored. Persist it as a volume if you use plugins. <data>/plugins
TREK_PLUGINS_DATA_DIR Directory for each plugin's own data (its private SQLite file). Kept separate from the code tree; persist it as a volume too. <data>/plugins-data
TREK_PLUGIN_REGISTRY_URL Override the plugin registry index the Discover tab browses. Point it at your own fork or mirror of the registry. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liketrek/TREK-Plugins/main/dist/index.json
TREK_PLUGIN_MAX_RSS_MB Per-plugin memory ceiling in MB. A plugin process that exceeds it is stopped. 300
TREK_PLUGIN_PERMISSIONS Set to any falsy value (off, false, 0, no — any casing) to opt out of the Node.js OS-level permission sandbox for plugin child processes (not recommended). A truthy value, or leaving it unset, keeps the sandbox on; anything outside that set is rejected at boot. on
TREK_PLUGIN_ALLOW_PRIVATE_EGRESS Set to on to let a plugin's declared outbound hosts resolve to private/internal addresses (e.g. a service on your LAN). By default connections to private, loopback, link-local and metadata addresses are refused. off (private egress blocked)
TREK_PLUGINS_DEV_LINK Development only. Set to any truthy value (1, true, on, yes — any casing) to enable dev-link: registering a plugin from a local build directory and hot-reloading it against a live instance's data. Dev-linked code bypasses the install-time signature/integrity checks and (under npm run dev) runs with the OS permission jail off, so it must never be reachable in production — absent, blank or an explicitly falsy value (0, false, off, no) keeps it off. Data access is still fully gated by the capability host. off (disabled)
TREK_PLUGINS_IGNORE_TREK_RANGE Set to any truthy value (1, true, on, yes — any casing) to turn the plugin TREK-version gate into a warning. A plugin whose trek range does not admit the running TREK — or that declares no range at all — can then be installed (registry, sideload, dev-link), updated and activated, and "install latest" takes the newest published version rather than the newest compatible one. Every bypass is logged, the install response carries a trekRangeBypassed marker, and the admin panel shows a Version checks off pill, a warning dialog before/after each such install, and a persistent chip on the row. Use it only when a plugin author has not yet updated their range for your TREK: nothing guarantees the plugin works, and in rare cases a mismatched plugin can corrupt TREK data. The plugin-API version gate is not lifted. Absent, blank or falsy keeps the gate hard. off (gate enforced)
TREK_PLUGIN_AI_PER_DAY Per-plugin daily cap on shared-LLM broker calls (ai.complete / ai.extract). Bounds how much a single plugin can spend on the admin's LLM quota per UTC day, independent of its granted permissions. Counts persist across restarts within the same day; set to 0 to disable the AI broker entirely. Generous by design — only bites a runaway plugin. 200
TREK_PLUGIN_NOTIFY_PER_DAY Per-plugin daily cap on user-notification broker calls (notify.send), so one plugin can't spam a user. Same UTC-day window and restart-safe counting as TREK_PLUGIN_AI_PER_DAY; set to 0 to disable the notify broker. 100
TREK_PLUGIN_RPC_PER_SEC Sustained rate limit (calls per second) for a plugin's host RPC calls (ctx.*) once its burst allowance is spent. Prevents a tight-loop plugin from starving the single-threaded host. 20
TREK_PLUGIN_RPC_BURST Burst allowance — how many host RPC calls a plugin may fire back-to-back before the per-second limit applies. 60
TREK_PLUGIN_RPC_INFLIGHT Max concurrent host→plugin RPC dispatches allowed for a single plugin at once (concurrency cap). 16
TREK_PLUGIN_LOG_PER_SEC Sustained rate limit (log lines per second) for a plugin's log output — ctx.log.*, the child process's stdout/stderr, and unknown plugin event topics — once its burst allowance is spent. This path is not covered by the RPC limiter above, and warn/error lines land in a synchronous plugin_error_log INSERT + prune on the host thread, so this is what stops a while (true) ctx.log.error(...) loop from pinning the instance. Excess lines are dropped; when logging resumes, one warn line reports how many were dropped, so the throttling is visible to an operator. 10
TREK_PLUGIN_LOG_BURST Burst allowance — how many log lines a plugin may emit back-to-back before the per-second limit applies. 50
TREK_PLUGIN_AUDIT_MAX_ROWS Per-plugin retention cap for the capability audit log (kept in the shared data/travel.db). The newest N rows per plugin are retained and older ones pruned; the retained window stays tamper-evident. Set to 0 to disable pruning. 20000

All of these are optional — the defaults are safe. Set TREK_PLUGINS_ENABLED=false if you want to switch the plugin system off entirely.