Environment variables

All configuration lives in .env (copied from .env.example via make setup). Every Docker service and host process reads from this file.

Required (set before make up)

Variable	Purpose
NEXUS_WORKSPACE_ROOT	Absolute path to the parent dir of project workspaces. Composer fails fast if unset.
ROCKETCHAT_ADMIN_PASSWORD	RC admin login. Replace the dev default.
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	Postgres superuser. Replace the dev default.
DATABASE_URL	Full connection URL — must include the password above.
NEXUS_WEBHOOK_TOKEN	RC → gateway webhook auth. Replace before any non-LAN deploy.
NEXUS_PUBLIC_URL	Externally-reachable origin. Used to build join URLs (<NEXUS_PUBLIC_URL>/join/<code>) issued by make create-bridge / make issue-join-link. Defaults to http://localhost:4000; set to your real LAN IP / domain before sharing any URL.
NEXUS_JOIN_TTL_HOURS	Default lifetime (in hours) of a one-shot join code. Default 24. Lower = less leak window; higher = more flexibility.

Rocket.Chat

Variable	Default	Purpose
ROCKETCHAT_URL	http://localhost:3000	Public URL of the chat instance
ROCKETCHAT_ADMIN_USERNAME	admin	Admin login
ROCKETCHAT_ADMIN_PASSWORD	nexus_admin_dev	Admin password
ROCKETCHAT_ADMIN_EMAIL	admin@nexus.local	Admin email (verification stub)

Postgres + pgvector

Variable	Default
POSTGRES_HOST	localhost
POSTGRES_PORT	5433
POSTGRES_USER	nexus
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	nexus_dev_pass
POSTGRES_DB	nexus
DATABASE_URL	postgresql://nexus:nexus_dev_pass@localhost:5433/nexus

Redis

Variable	Default
REDIS_HOST	localhost
REDIS_PORT	6380
REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6380

Nexus services (host)

Variable	Default	Purpose
GATEWAY_PORT	4000	gateway listens here
COMPOSER_PORT	4001	composer health/admin endpoints
RUNTIME_PORT	4002	runtime health endpoint
MEM0_API_URL	http://localhost:4100	composer talks to mem0 here

Mem0 (memory layer)

Mem0 needs an LLM for fact extraction + summarization. Use any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Variable	Default
MEM0_LLM_PROVIDER	openai
MEM0_LLM_MODEL	gpt-4o-mini
MEM0_LLM_BASE_URL	https://api.openai.com/v1
MEM0_LLM_API_KEY	sk-replace-me — set this
MEM0_EMBEDDER_PROVIDER	huggingface (local)
MEM0_EMBEDDER_MODEL	sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2
MEM0_EMBEDDING_DIMS	384

For a self-hosted vLLM:

MEM0_LLM_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000/v1
MEM0_LLM_MODEL=<your-model-id>
MEM0_LLM_API_KEY=any-string-vllm-ignores-it

CLI binaries

The runtime resolves each CLI by $PATH by default. Override only when the binary lives somewhere unusual.

Variable	Default	Used by
CLAUDE_BIN	claude (via PATH)	runtime/adapters/claude.ts
HERMES_BIN	hermes (via PATH)	runtime/adapters/hermes.ts
CURSOR_BIN	agent (via PATH)	runtime/adapters/cursor.ts
GEMINI_BIN	gemini (via PATH)	runtime/adapters/gemini.ts
GEMINI_MODEL	gemini-2.5-flash	runtime/adapters/gemini.ts

Compaction tuning (composer)

Variable	Default	Purpose
NEXUS_TRANSCRIPT_WINDOW	20	Raw messages kept verbatim per invocation
NEXUS_OLDER_WINDOW	100	Older messages summarized behind the window
NEXUS_LANDMARK_WINDOW	10	Landmark candidates scanned in visible range

Bot-to-bot

Variable	Default	Purpose
NEXUS_MAX_HOP	2	Max bot-to-bot mention dispatches per chain

Logging

Variable	Default	Notes
LOG_LEVEL	info	trace/debug/info/warn/error
NODE_ENV	development	Enables pino-pretty in dev

Optional fallback keys

If you want to use a real provider directly (without the Mem0 layer proxying):

Variable	Notes
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Unused if MEM0_LLM_* is set
OPENAI_API_KEY	Unused if MEM0_LLM_* is set