Environment Variables
Varin reads these environment variables at startup. For startup services, varin startup enable snapshots the current environment by default, so rerun it after changing variables you want the service to use.
These variables configure the Application Host and platform services. Configure model accounts in Settings → Model channels; changing the data directory does not import or migrate an existing store.
Varin server
Section titled “Varin server”VARIN_HOST
Section titled “VARIN_HOST”Bind address for the Varin web server. Use 0.0.0.0 to allow access from other machines.
VARIN_UI_PASSWORD
Section titled “VARIN_UI_PASSWORD”Password for the browser UI. Use this when binding outside localhost, using tunnels, or running behind a reverse proxy.
VARIN_API_ONLY
Section titled “VARIN_API_ONLY”Starts Varin in headless mode when set to true or 1. API routes stay available for desktop and mobile clients, but the browser UI is not served.
VARIN_DATA_DIR
Section titled “VARIN_DATA_DIR”Overrides the Varin data directory. Defaults: Linux uses $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/varin (or ~/.config/varin); macOS uses ~/Library/Application Support/Varin; Windows uses %APPDATA%/Varin.
VARIN_COMPRESS_API
Section titled “VARIN_COMPRESS_API”Controls API response compression. Use true or 1 to force it on, false or 0 to force it off.
VARIN_SKIP_API_COMPRESSION
Section titled “VARIN_SKIP_API_COMPRESSION”Disables API response compression when set to true or 1. This takes precedence over VARIN_COMPRESS_API.
VARIN_VERBOSE_REQUEST_LOGS
Section titled “VARIN_VERBOSE_REQUEST_LOGS”Enables verbose HTTP request logs when set to true or 1.
VARIN_UPDATE_API_URL
Section titled “VARIN_UPDATE_API_URL”Overrides the update-check API endpoint. Most users should leave this unset.
VARIN_PACKAGE_MANAGER
Section titled “VARIN_PACKAGE_MANAGER”Forces the package manager used by update operations when auto-detection is wrong.
Terminal and Git
Section titled “Terminal and Git”VARIN_TERMINAL_SHELL
Section titled “VARIN_TERMINAL_SHELL”Shell executable used for Varin terminal sessions.
VARIN_GIT_BINARY
Section titled “VARIN_GIT_BINARY”Git executable used by Varin Git features.
GIT_BINARY
Section titled “GIT_BINARY”Alternative Git executable override. Prefer VARIN_GIT_BINARY for Varin-specific configuration.
Voice and tunnels
Section titled “Voice and tunnels”OPENAI_API_KEY
Section titled “OPENAI_API_KEY”API key used by Varin voice features that call OpenAI-compatible services.
VARIN_ALLOW_REMOTE_OPENAI_COMPAT_URLS
Section titled “VARIN_ALLOW_REMOTE_OPENAI_COMPAT_URLS”Allows remote OpenAI-compatible base URLs for voice features when set to true or 1.
NGROK_AUTHTOKEN
Section titled “NGROK_AUTHTOKEN”ngrok auth token used by Varin tunnel commands. You can also configure ngrok with ngrok config add-authtoken <token>.
Private Relay
Section titled “Private Relay”VARIN_RELAY_URL
Section titled “VARIN_RELAY_URL”ws:// or wss:// endpoint of the Private Relay the server connects out to for Anywhere pairing. Varin has no default relay: without this variable, Anywhere is unavailable and the server never connects to a relay. Give varin connect-url --relay the same value.
Runtime helpers
Section titled “Runtime helpers”BUN_BINARY
Section titled “BUN_BINARY”Bun executable Varin should use when spawning daemon processes.
BUN_INSTALL
Section titled “BUN_INSTALL”Bun installation root. Varin uses it to find bin/bun for daemon startup and updates.