Environment variables

Pythinker Code CLI uses environment variables to control a small number of runtime behaviors — relocating the data directory, turning off telemetry, and temporarily switching models without touching the config file.

Important: API keys are explicitly referenced

Credential variables such as PYTHINKER_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, and OPENAI_API_KEY are not guessed automatically. A provider reads a shell credential only when [providers.<name>].api_key_env_var names it. Catalog import writes this reference for supported providers without writing the token itself.

The PYTHINKER_MODEL_* family remains a separate explicit channel that synthesizes a temporary provider — see Define a model from environment variables.

For background, see Config overrides: provider credentials.

Core paths

PYTHINKER_CODE_HOME

Overrides the data root directory; the default is ~/.pythinker-code. Once set, the config file, sessions, logs, OAuth credentials, and all other data land under the new path:

export PYTHINKER_CODE_HOME="/path/to/custom/pythinker-code"

Make sure the directory is writable. Multiple pythinker instances sharing the same PYTHINKER_CODE_HOME will share config and credential files.

For the complete data directory structure, see Data locations.

PYTHINKER_DISABLE_TELEMETRY

Set to 1 to turn off anonymous telemetry reporting (also accepts true, yes, y, case-insensitive):

export PYTHINKER_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1

PYTHINKER_MODEL_* family

Switch models temporarily without modifying config.toml — when PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME is set, the CLI synthesizes a temporary provider in memory; the change does not persist after restart. See Define a model from environment variables.

Provider credential environment references

Use api_key_env_var when the secret should remain in the process environment:

[providers.anthropic]
type = "anthropic"
api_key_env_var = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
pythinker

The legacy [providers.<name>.env] sub-table remains a literal config-file fallback for api_key and base_url; it does not read or modify the shell environment:

[providers.pythinker.env]
PYTHINKER_API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
PYTHINKER_BASE_URL = "https://api.example.com/v1"

Provider-conventional config-subtable keys:

Key	Applicable provider	Default
PYTHINKER_API_KEY	Pythinker / Pythoughts	None
PYTHINKER_BASE_URL	Pythinker / Pythoughts	https://api.pythoughts.ai/v1
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic	None
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	Anthropic	Follows Anthropic SDK default
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI (openai and openai_responses)	None
OPENAI_BASE_URL	OpenAI (openai and openai_responses)	https://api.openai.com/v1
GOOGLE_API_KEY	Google GenAI, Vertex AI	None
VERTEXAI_API_KEY	Vertex AI	None
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT	Vertex AI	None
GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION	Vertex AI	None

Catalog entries can declare other credential names and persist them through api_key_env_var. The featured connections currently declare:

Catalog provider	Credential variable
DeepSeek (deepseek)	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
GLM Coding Plan (zai-coding-plan)	ZHIPU_API_KEY
MiniMax Token Plan (minimax-coding-plan)	MINIMAX_API_KEY
Kimi For Coding (kimi-for-coding)	KIMI_API_KEY

WARNING

GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS (path to a service account JSON file) is read directly by the Google SDK through the standard ADC flow; api_key_env_var is not involved in that path.

For the full provider type and field reference, see Providers and models.

OAuth and managed services

This group of variables redirects OAuth authentication and managed service endpoints to a self-hosted or test environment. They are not needed for everyday use.

Variable	Purpose	Default
PYTHINKER_CODE_OAUTH_HOST	OAuth auth host; highest priority	Falls back to PYTHINKER_OAUTH_HOST when unset
PYTHINKER_OAUTH_HOST	OAuth auth host; fallback for PYTHINKER_CODE_OAUTH_HOST	Falls back to https://auth.pythinker.com when unset
PYTHINKER_CODE_BASE_URL	Managed API base URL used after OAuth login	https://api.pythinker.com/coding/v1

WARNING

PYTHINKER_CODE_BASE_URL (OAuth-managed service, targeting pythinker.com) and PYTHINKER_BASE_URL (direct API key connection, targeting pythoughts.ai) are two distinct variables. Use each one in its appropriate context.

Define a model from environment variables (PYTHINKER_MODEL_*)

Want to switch models for testing without touching config.toml? When PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME is set, the CLI synthesizes a temporary provider and model alias from the PYTHINKER_MODEL_* variables in memory — nothing is written back to the config file. These variables take priority over default_model in config.toml, but the -m <alias> option at startup still has the highest priority.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME="pythinker-for-coding"
export PYTHINKER_MODEL_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
export PYTHINKER_MODEL_BASE_URL="https://api.example.com/v1"
export PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE="262144"
export PYTHINKER_MODEL_CAPABILITIES="image_in,thinking"
pythinker

Complete variable list:

Variable	Required	Purpose	Default
PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME	Yes (also the enable switch)	Model id sent to the API	—
PYTHINKER_MODEL_API_KEY	Yes	API key	—
PYTHINKER_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE	No	Provider type: pythinker, anthropic, openai	pythinker
PYTHINKER_MODEL_BASE_URL	No	API base URL	Each type has its own default
PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE	No	Maximum context length (tokens)	262144 (256 K)
PYTHINKER_MODEL_CAPABILITIES	No	Comma-separated capability tags, unioned with auto-detected capabilities	image_in,thinking
PYTHINKER_MODEL_DISPLAY_NAME	No	Name shown in /model	Falls back to PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME
PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_OUTPUT_SIZE	No	Per-request output cap (anthropic only)	Model default
PYTHINKER_MODEL_REASONING_KEY	No	Reasoning field name override (openai only)	Auto-detected
PYTHINKER_MODEL_DEFAULT_THINKING	No	Default Thinking toggle for new sessions	Follows global default
PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_MODE	No	Thinking trigger policy: auto/on/off	—
PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_EFFORT	No	Thinking effort level: low/medium/high/xhigh/max	—
PYTHINKER_MODEL_ADAPTIVE_THINKING	No	Force adaptive thinking on or off (anthropic only)	Inferred from model name

If PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME is set but a required variable is missing, startup fails immediately with a clear error message.

Runtime switches

Switches that control the behavior of subsystems such as telemetry, background tasks, and the plugin marketplace:

Variable	Purpose	Valid values
PYTHINKER_DISABLE_TELEMETRY	Disable anonymous telemetry reporting	1, true, yes, y (case-insensitive)
PYTHINKER_CODE_BACKGROUND_KEEP_ALIVE_ON_EXIT	Whether to keep background tasks when the session closes; takes higher priority than config.toml. The default is to stop them on exit	Truthy: 1/true/yes/on; falsy: 0/false/no/off
PYTHINKER_CODE_PLUGIN_MARKETPLACE_URL	Override the plugin marketplace JSON loaded by /plugins	URL or local path
PYTHINKER_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_FLAG	Enable all registered experimental features for this process; micro_compaction is already enabled by default	1, true, yes, on
PYTHINKER_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_MICRO_COMPACTION	Override [experimental].micro_compaction for this process	Truthy or falsy
PYTHINKER_SHELL_PATH	Override the Git Bash path on Windows (used when auto-detection fails)	Absolute path
PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_COMPLETION_TOKENS	Hard cap on max_completion_tokens per LLM step; applies to the pythinker provider only	Positive integer; 0 or negative disables clamping
PYTHINKER_MODEL_TEMPERATURE	Sampling temperature for every request; applies to the pythinker provider only (global — independent of PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME)	Number, e.g. 0.3
PYTHINKER_MODEL_TOP_P	Nucleus-sampling top_p for every request; applies to the pythinker provider only (global)	Number, e.g. 0.95
PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_KEEP	Pythoughts preserved-thinking passthrough (thinking.keep); applies to the pythinker provider only, and only while Thinking is on	A value the API accepts, e.g. all
PYTHINKER_CODE_NO_AUTO_UPDATE	Fully disable the update preflight — no check, background install, or prompt. Legacy alias PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE is also honored	Truthy: 1/true/yes/on
PYTHINKER_DISABLE_CRON	Disable the scheduled-task tool (CronCreate rejects new schedules; existing tasks do not fire)	1 to disable

Diagnostic logs

These variables control log level and file rotation, read once at process startup:

Variable	Purpose	Default
PYTHINKER_LOG_LEVEL	Log level: off, error, warn, info, debug	info
PYTHINKER_LOG_GLOBAL_MAX_BYTES	Maximum bytes per global log file	6291456 (6 MB)
PYTHINKER_LOG_GLOBAL_FILES	Number of global log files to retain	5
PYTHINKER_LOG_SESSION_MAX_BYTES	Maximum bytes per session log file	5242880 (5 MB)
PYTHINKER_LOG_SESSION_FILES	Number of session log files to retain	3

System environment variables

The CLI also reads several standard system variables to detect the runtime environment; it does not modify them:

• HOME: used to resolve the default data path
• VISUAL, EDITOR: external editor command (VISUAL takes precedence)
• PATH: used to locate dependencies such as rg, fd, fdfind, and git; on Windows, Git Bash detection checks each git.exe found on PATH, including package-manager shims such as Scoop
• NO_COLOR, FORCE_COLOR: control color output (following the no-color.org convention)
• CI: when non-empty and not "0", disables theme detection and falls back to the dark theme
• TERM_PROGRAM, TERM, TMUX: detect terminal features and notification support
• DISPLAY, WAYLAND_DISPLAY, XDG_SESSION_TYPE: detect Linux graphical sessions (for clipboard and image features)
• WSL_DISTRO_NAME, WSLENV: detect WSL for the clipboard PowerShell bridge
• LOCALAPPDATA: used on Windows as a fallback when probing for the Git Bash installation path

HTTP proxy

Pythinker Code honors the standard proxy environment variables for all outbound traffic — model API calls, MCP servers, web tools, telemetry, sign-in, and update checks:

• HTTP_PROXY / http_proxy: proxy for http:// requests
• HTTPS_PROXY / https_proxy: proxy for https:// requests
• ALL_PROXY / all_proxy: fallback proxy used when the scheme-specific variable is unset; this is where a SOCKS proxy is usually set
• NO_PROXY / no_proxy: comma-separated hosts that bypass the proxy

Both HTTP(S) and SOCKS proxies are supported. A SOCKS proxy is recognized by its scheme — socks5://, socks5h://, socks4://, or socks:// (an alias for socks5://) — and is typically set via ALL_PROXY (the form used by tools like Clash and V2RayN). An HTTP(S) proxy takes precedence over ALL_PROXY for HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

The proxy is applied only when one of these variables is set; otherwise connections are made directly. Loopback hosts (localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1) always bypass the proxy, so a local server such as a localhost MCP server keeps working when a proxy is configured — add your own internal hosts to NO_PROXY to exempt them too.

Stdio MCP servers that run as Node child processes honor HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY / NO_PROXY automatically when the child's Node version supports NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY (Node ≥ 22.21 or ≥ 24.5); SOCKS proxying applies to Pythinker Code's own traffic only.

Next steps

• Config overrides — how environment variables, CLI options, and the config file interact by priority
• Data locations — directory structure affected by PYTHINKER_CODE_HOME
• Providers and models — full connection examples per provider type