Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH	~/.config/alchemist/config.toml	Path to config file
ALCHEMIST_CONFIG	(alias)	Alias for ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH
ALCHEMIST_DB_PATH	~/.config/alchemist/alchemist.db	Path to SQLite database
ALCHEMIST_DATA_DIR	(none)	Sets data dir; alchemist.db placed here
ALCHEMIST_TEMP_DIR	data dir + /temp	Directory for managed temporary uploads, conversion outputs, and update staging
ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_MUTABLE	true	Set false to block runtime config writes
ALCHEMIST_SERVER_PORT	auto from 3000	Require one specific HTTP port instead of falling forward when 3000 is busy
ALCHEMIST_SETUP_TOKEN	(none)	Optional extra setup-mode guard; setup endpoints require the matching token query parameter when set
ALCHEMIST_COOKIE_SECURE	false	Set true only behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy so session cookies include Secure
ALCHEMIST_NO_PAUSE	(unset)	Skip the Windows-style “Press Enter to exit” pause after a fatal startup error
RUST_LOG	info	Log level: info, debug, alchemist=trace
ALCHEMIST_LOG_FORMAT	text	Log output format: text (human-readable, default) or json (one structured object per line, for Loki / Elasticsearch / Datadog ingestion). Overrides [system].log_format in the config.

Build and release automation also use ALCHEMIST_UPDATE_PUBLIC_KEY_B64 to embed the update-manifest verification key in release binaries. It is not a runtime setting for normal installs.

Default paths: XDG on Linux/macOS, %APPDATA%\Alchemist\ on Windows.

Docker

Docker images set the app paths to container-native locations: ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/config.toml and ALCHEMIST_DB_PATH=/app/data/alchemist.db. Keep them explicit in Compose files when you want the deployment to show exactly where Alchemist reads and writes inside the container.

environment:
  - ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/config.toml
  - ALCHEMIST_DB_PATH=/app/data/alchemist.db

Recommended host bind mounts (directories, never config.toml itself — a single-file mount blocks the setup wizard from saving):

volumes:
  - ./config:/app/config
  - ./data:/app/data

In those volume entries, the right side is the container path and the left side is the Docker host path backing it. For example, /data/alchemist/config:/app/config still makes Alchemist read /app/config/config.toml inside the container, while storing the file on the host under /data/alchemist/config. Binary installs use the default ~/.config/alchemist/config.toml path because no container mount exists.

Docker-only variables, handled by the container entrypoint:

Variable	Default	Description
PUID	0	Run the server as this user id; ./config and ./data are chowned at start
PGID	0	Group id for the above (setting only one of the two implies the other)