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Reference: Environment Variables

Environment variables configure server behavior at runtime. Most settings should be configured in deployment.json, but these variables can override or supplement the configuration.

Core Configuration

Variable Default Description
DEPLOYMENT_CONFIG deployment.json Path to deployment configuration file
MCP_HOST 0.0.0.0 Server bind address
MCP_PORT 42042 Server port
LOG_LEVEL info Logging level: debug, info, warning, error
OPERATION_MODE online online (sync enabled) or offline (read-only)

Sync & Crawl Settings

Variable Default Description
ENABLE_CRAWLER true Enable web crawling for online tenants
HTTP_TIMEOUT 120 HTTP request timeout in seconds
MAX_CRAWL_PAGES 10000 Maximum pages to crawl per tenant
CRAWLER_PLAYWRIGHT_FIRST true Use Playwright for JavaScript-rendered pages

Search Settings

Variable Default Description
SEARCH_TIMEOUT 30 Search operation timeout in seconds
SEARCH_INCLUDE_STATS true Include statistics in search responses
DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE surrounding Default fetch mode: full or surrounding
DEFAULT_FETCH_SURROUNDING_CHARS 1000 Characters around match in surrounding mode

Git Authentication

For private git repositories, set authentication tokens via environment variables:

Variable Description
GH_TOKEN GitHub personal access token
GITLAB_TOKEN GitLab access token

Reference in deployment.json: 

{
  "source_type": "git",
  "codename": "private-docs",
  "git_repo_url": "https://github.com/org/private-repo.git",
  "git_auth_token_env": "GH_TOKEN"
}

Docker Deployment

When running in Docker, pass environment variables with -e:

docker run -d \
  -p 42042:42042 \
  -e LOG_LEVEL=debug \
  -e OPERATION_MODE=online \
  -v "$PWD/deployment.json:/home/mcp/app/deployment.json:ro" \
  -v "$PWD/mcp-data:/home/mcp/app/mcp-data" \
  ghcr.io/pankaj28843/docs-mcp-server:latest

Or use an environment file:

# .env file
LOG_LEVEL=debug
OPERATION_MODE=online
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxx

docker run --env-file .env ...

Precedence

Configuration is resolved in this order (later overrides earlier):

  1. Defaults (hardcoded in code)
  2. deployment.json (infrastructure section)
  3. Environment variables (runtime override)

Example: If deployment.json sets "log_level": "info" but you run with LOG_LEVEL=debug, debug logging is used.

Debugging

Check current configuration:

# View effective settings
docker exec docs-mcp-server env | grep -E "MCP|LOG|OPERATION"

# Check health with tenant count
curl -s http://localhost:42042/health | jq '{status, tenant_count}'