Environment Variables

Set secrets and configuration for your apps. Environment variables are injected into your app process at startup.

Setting Environment Variables

Via plitho.yml

apps:
  - name: myapp
    env:
      NODE_ENV: production
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb
      API_KEY: your-secret-key

Via the Dashboard

1. Go to Apps → your app → Environment tab
2. Add or edit variables
3. Click Save

Changes require a restart — click Reload on the app.

How They Work

• Variables are stored securely in the Plitho database
• They persist across deploys and restarts
• Changes take effect after a restart
• The PORT variable is auto-set to your server_port — don't set it manually
• The BIND_ADDRESS is always set to 0.0.0.0
• The HOME and DATA_DIR variables are set to your app's directories

Common Variables

Variable	Description	Example
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string	postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db
REDIS_URL	Redis/Valkey connection string	redis://:pass@host:6379
PORT	Auto-set by Plitho	3000
BIND_ADDRESS	Auto-set to 0.0.0.0	0.0.0.0
HOME	App home directory	/home/plitho-myapp
DATA_DIR	Persistent data directory	/home/plitho-myapp/data
NODE_ENV	Node.js environment	production
PYTHONUNBUFFERED	Python output buffering	1
SECRET_KEY	App secret (Django, etc.)	your-secret-key
VIRTUAL_ENV	Python virtualenv path (auto-set)	/home/plitho-myapp/env
PATH	Includes virtualenv bin (auto-set)	/home/plitho-myapp/env/bin:...

Note

Don't put secrets in plitho.yml if your repo is public. Use the dashboard to set sensitive variables instead — they're stored separately and not exposed in git history.

Warning

Environment variable values are sanitized for systemd unit files. Newlines and null characters are stripped. If you need multiline values, consider base64-encoding them.