Environment Variables

Anyy uses environment variables in two ways: runtime selection variables that affect Anyy itself, and env: secret references that resolve provider, channel, MCP, or media credentials. Prefer profile-local secret: refs for durable secrets; use env: when the surrounding service manager already owns credential injection.

Where Values Belong

Value type	Preferred location
One-off profile/home selection	CLI flags such as --home and --profile.
Durable provider or channel credentials	Profile-local secret: refs.
Service-manager injected credentials	env:NAME refs.
MCP stdio server environment	mcp.client.servers.<id>.env.
Non-secret runtime defaults	config.yaml.

env: refs are resolved when Anyy needs the value. An unset or empty variable is treated as a missing secret.

Home And Profile

Variable	Used by	Meaning
ANYY_HOME	CLI, workspace paths, service scripts, installer	Explicit Anyy home directory.
ANYY_DEFAULT_HOME	Profile manager, dashboard tests, profile-aware commands	Default base home/profile root override.
HOME	Installer fallback	Used by install scripts when ANYY_HOME is not set.
NO_COLOR	CLI renderer	Disables colored output when set.
TERM=dumb	CLI renderer	Disables terminal styling for dumb terminals.

Most commands also accept --home PATH, which is clearer than relying on environment when running one-off diagnostics.

Provider Credentials

Provider credentials are usually referenced from config.yaml:

providers:
  - id: openai-compatible
    api_key_ref: env:OPENAI_API_KEY

Common examples from the sample config include:

Variable	Typical use
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible or OpenAI Responses provider examples.
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic Messages provider examples.
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	DeepSeek-compatible examples.
GEMINI_API_KEY	Google Gemini provider examples.

These names are not hard-coded requirements for every provider. Any api_key_ref: env:NAME or credential_ref: env:NAME reads NAME.

Channel Credentials

Channel setup can store credentials as profile-local secret: refs, which is preferred for long-running services. Channel doctor and live smoke also use environment variables for operator-run tests.

The live smoke gate is:

Variable	Meaning
ANYY_LIVE_CHANNEL_TESTS=1	Allows live channel smoke tests to contact external platforms.

Channel-specific live-smoke variables:

Channel	Variables
Telegram	ANYY_TELEGRAM_TEST_TOKEN, ANYY_TELEGRAM_TEST_CHAT_ID
Slack	ANYY_SLACK_TEST_BOT_TOKEN, ANYY_SLACK_TEST_CHANNEL_ID
Discord	ANYY_DISCORD_TEST_BOT_TOKEN, ANYY_DISCORD_TEST_CHANNEL_ID
Feishu	ANYY_FEISHU_TEST_RECEIVE_ID plus either ANYY_FEISHU_TEST_TENANT_ACCESS_TOKEN or both ANYY_FEISHU_TEST_APP_ID and ANYY_FEISHU_TEST_APP_SECRET
DingTalk	ANYY_DINGTALK_TEST_SESSION_WEBHOOK
QQ Bot	ANYY_QQBOT_TEST_APP_ID, ANYY_QQBOT_TEST_CLIENT_SECRET, ANYY_QQBOT_TEST_TARGET_ID
Facebook Messenger	ANYY_FACEBOOK_TEST_PAGE_ID, ANYY_FACEBOOK_TEST_PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN, ANYY_FACEBOOK_TEST_RECIPIENT_ID
Email	ANYY_EMAIL_TEST_ADDRESS, ANYY_EMAIL_TEST_PASSWORD, ANYY_EMAIL_TEST_IMAP_HOST, ANYY_EMAIL_TEST_SMTP_HOST
IRC	ANYY_IRC_TEST_HOST, ANYY_IRC_TEST_NICK
SMS	ANYY_SMS_TEST_ACCOUNT_SID, ANYY_SMS_TEST_AUTH_TOKEN, ANYY_SMS_TEST_FROM_NUMBER, ANYY_SMS_TEST_TO_NUMBER
LINE	ANYY_LINE_TEST_CHANNEL_ACCESS_TOKEN, ANYY_LINE_TEST_CHANNEL_SECRET, ANYY_LINE_TEST_TARGET_ID
WhatsApp	ANYY_WHATSAPP_TEST_BRIDGE_URL, ANYY_WHATSAPP_TEST_CHAT_ID

Live smoke commands are operator tests; ordinary anyy channels doctor does not contact external platforms just because these variables exist.

MCP Credentials

MCP server environment is configured per server:

mcp:
  client:
    servers:
      github:
        transport: stdio
        command: npx
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: secret:mcp/github/token

Values under mcp.client.servers.<id>.env can be literal strings or secret refs such as secret:mcp/github/token and env:GITHUB_TOKEN. Stdio transport does not inherit arbitrary Anyy environment by default; pass only the variables the server needs.

This is deliberate. It keeps provider keys, channel tokens, and unrelated shell state out of MCP subprocesses unless you explicitly expose them.

Voice And Media

Voice and media provider credentials use the same env: and secret: ref scheme:

tts:
  openai:
    api_key_ref: env:OPENAI_API_KEY
media_understanding:
  audio:
    providers:
      transcriber:
        credential_ref: secret:media/transcriber/token

Configuring credentials does not enable a feature by itself. The related enabled, provider, model, and capability fields still control runtime use.

Debugging

Installer and operator variables:

Variable	Meaning
ANYY_RELEASE_BASE_URL	Override the release base URL used by scripts/install.sh.
ANYY_LATEST_URL	Override the endpoint that returns the latest release version.
ANYY_INSTALL_COMPACT=1	Ask the installer to use compact install behavior.
ANYY_QUIET=1	Reduce installer output when supported.

Debugging rules:

• Prefer anyy status --json and anyy doctor --json over printing raw environment.
• Do not paste provider keys, channel tokens, OAuth credentials, or live-smoke secrets into issue reports.
• When a variable is used through env:NAME, an unset or empty value is treated as a missing secret.