Environment variables

Each Observatory service reads its configuration from environment variables. This page lists the variables grouped by service. Defaults shown are what the standard Docker Compose stack uses.

Observatory API

Database

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`POSTGRES_OBSERVATORY_URI`	PostgreSQL host and port.	`observatory-db:5432`	observatory-api
`POSTGRES_OBSERVATORY_DATABASE`	Database name.	`observatory`	observatory-api
`POSTGRES_OBSERVATORY_USERNAME`	Database username.	`observatory`	observatory-api
`POSTGRES_OBSERVATORY_PASSWORD`	Database password.	`S3cret`	observatory-api

Authentication (Keycloak)

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`SECURITY_OAUTH2_BASE_SERVER_URL`	Base URL of the auth server.	(set per env)	observatory-api
`SECURITY_OAUTH2_REALM`	Realm name (the organization ID).	(set per env)	observatory-api
`SECURITY_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID`	OAuth2 client ID.	`flowx-platform-authenticate`	observatory-api
`SECURITY_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET`	Client secret.	(set per env)	observatory-api

Observatory authenticates against an external FlowX identity provider — the platform does not bundle its own Keycloak. Point these at your auth server; the realm is your organization ID.

LLM providers

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI API key.	(required for OpenAI)	observatory-api
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Anthropic API key.	(optional)	observatory-api
`GOOGLE_API_KEY`	Google API key.	(optional)	observatory-api
`XAI_API_KEY`	xAI API key.	(optional)	observatory-api
`MISTRAL_API_KEY`	Mistral API key.	(optional)	observatory-api
`OLLAMA_BASE_URL`	Local Ollama URL.	`http://host.docker.internal:11434`	observatory-api

Operational

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`URL_PREFIX`	Path prefix the API is served under.	`/ai-observatory`	observatory-api
`CACHE_SIZE`	In-memory cache size (entries).	`1000`	observatory-api
`CACHE_TTL`	Cache TTL in seconds.	`3600`	observatory-api
`GUNICORN_WORKERS`	Worker processes.	`1`	observatory-api
`GUNICORN_TIMEOUT`	Worker timeout in seconds.	`600`	observatory-api
`APPLICATION_CORS_ALLOWORIGIN`	Comma-separated list of allowed CORS origins.	(set per env)	observatory-api

Observatory Web

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`BASE_API_URL`	Base URL of `observatory-api`.	`http://localhost:8091`	observatory-web
`PLATFORM_API_URL`	Base URL of `observatory-platform`.	`http://localhost:8092`	observatory-web
`KEYCLOAK_ISSUER`	OIDC issuer URL (auth server + realm).	(set per env)	observatory-web
`KEYCLOAK_REDIRECT_URI`	Post-login redirect.	`http://localhost:4900`	observatory-web
`KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_ID`	Public client ID.	`flowx-platform-authenticate`	observatory-web
`KEYCLOAK_SCOPES`	OAuth2 scopes.	`openid profile email offline_access`	observatory-web

Observatory Platform

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value	Component
`LOG_LEVEL`	Logger level.	`INFO`	observatory-platform
`PROMETHEUS_ENABLED`	Toggle Prometheus metrics.	`false`	observatory-platform
`ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	Comma-separated list of allowed CORS origins.	(set per env)	observatory-platform

Observatory SDK

Set these in the environment of the app that uses the SDK — not on the platform itself:

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
`FLOWX_OBSERVATORY_API_KEY`	API key from the Observatory Home page.	(required)
`FLOWX_OBSERVATORY_API_URL`	Base URL of the Observatory API.	(required)
`FLOWX_OBSERVATORY_ORG_ID`	Organization ID.	(required)
`FLOWX_OBSERVATORY_WORKSPACE_ID`	Workspace ID.	(required)
`FLOWX_OBSERVATORY_APP_ID`	Project ID.	(required)
`OBSERVATORY_TRACING`	Set to `false` to turn off instrumentation.	`true`

PostgreSQL initialization

The default database setup creates these databases via init_dbs/multiple-databases.sh (POSTGRES_MULTIPLE_DATABASES):

observatory — the main API store
dip, writer, agent_history, builder, insights, maildb — companion services in the FlowX AI stack

Default local credentials: observatory / S3cret. Override via the POSTGRES_OBSERVATORY_* env vars in production.

Self-hosted setup

The Compose flow that consumes these variables.

SDK overview

SDK-side environment configuration.

Get started

Observability

Governance

Compliance

ROI & value

SDK reference

Setup

Environment variables

Observatory API

Database

Authentication (Keycloak)

LLM providers

Operational

Observatory Web

Observatory Platform

Observatory SDK

PostgreSQL initialization

Self-hosted setup

SDK overview

​Observatory API

​Database

​Authentication (Keycloak)

​LLM providers

​Operational

​Observatory Web

​Observatory Platform

​Observatory SDK

​PostgreSQL initialization

​Related resources

Self-hosted setup

SDK overview

Observatory API

Database

Authentication (Keycloak)

LLM providers

Operational

Observatory Web

Observatory Platform

Observatory SDK

PostgreSQL initialization

Related resources