Backend Configuration

Every environment variable consumed by the DARE backend, with type, default, and description. Variables are loaded from .env at startup via config/env.py.

A working template lives at .example.env — copy it to .env and edit.

Django Core

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`	string	`config.settings.local`	Settings module to load. Use `config.settings.production` in prod.
`DJANGO_SECRET_KEY`	string	(required)	Django secret key. Rotate this from the example value before any non-local use.
`DJANGO_DEBUG`	bool	`False`	Enables debug responses and the Django debug toolbar. Must be `False` in production.
`ENVIRONMENT`	string	`local`	Free-form environment label (`local`, `staging`, `production`). Used in logs and Sentry tags.
`SITE_ID`	int	`1`	Django sites framework site ID.
`ALLOWED_HOSTS`	csv	`127.0.0.1,localhost`	Comma-separated hostnames Django will serve.
`CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	csv	(none)	Comma-separated origins permitted to make CORS requests.
`CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS`	csv	(none)	Comma-separated origins trusted for CSRF-protected POSTs.

Database

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`USE_POSTGRES`	bool	`False`	When `True`, connect to Postgres using `DB_*` below. When `False`, use SQLite at `dare_local.db`.
`DB_NAME`	string	(empty)	Postgres database name.
`DB_USER`	string	`postgres`	Postgres user.
`DB_PASSWORD`	string	(empty)	Postgres password.
`DB_HOST`	string	`localhost`	Postgres host.
`DB_PORT`	string	`5432`	Postgres port.

Redis & Background Jobs

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`REDIS_HOST`	string	`localhost`	Redis server host. Used by Django RQ and Channels.
`REDIS_PORT`	int	`6379`	Redis server port.
`REDIS_DB`	int	`0`	Redis logical database number.
`REDIS_PASSWORD`	string	(none)	Redis password, if AUTH is enabled.

LLM Provider Keys

At least one provider key should be set. Missing keys disable the corresponding provider but do not block startup.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	string	(none)	OpenAI API key (`sk-...`). Required for GPT models.
`CLAUDE_API_KEY`	string	(none)	Anthropic API key (`sk-ant-...`). Required for Claude models.
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	string	(none)	Google AI API key. Required for Gemini models.
`OLLAMA_HOST`	url	`http://localhost:11434`	Ollama server URL for self-hosted LLaMA models.

Vector Stores

DARE supports both Pinecone (managed) and Weaviate (self-hosted). Either or both can be configured; users choose at runtime via preferences.

Pinecone

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`PINECONE_API_KEY`	string	(none)	Pinecone API key.
`PINECONE_INDEX_NAME`	string	(none)	Pinecone index to read/write document embeddings.

Weaviate

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`WEAVIATE_HOST`	string	`localhost`	Weaviate server host.
`WEAVIATE_PORT`	int	`8080`	Weaviate REST port.
`WEAVIATE_COLLECTION_NAME`	string	`Document`	Collection (class) name for stored embeddings.
`WEAVIATE_SKIP_INIT_CHECKS`	bool	`True`	Skip startup connectivity checks.
`WEAVIATE_AUTOSCHEMA_ENABLED`	bool	`False`	Allow Weaviate to auto-create schema (not recommended for prod).

RAG_GRAPH_EXPAND_ENABLED (default true): in Advanced RAG on the document path, follow stored in-document references ("see section 7.2") one hop from each retrieved chunk before reranking. Set to false to disable the expand stage without touching ingest.
RAG_ENTITY_NER_ENABLED (default true): run the GLiNER named-entity lane at ingest alongside the regex identifier lane. Set to false to turn it off; identifiers still run.
RAG_ENTITY_MODEL (default urchade/gliner_small-v2.1): the GLiNER checkpoint used by the NER lane, loaded lazily on first use.
RAG_ENTITY_HOPS_ENABLED (default true): in Advanced RAG, when at least two files are selected, follow a hit's rarest shared entity into one chunk of another selected file during the expand stage.

Email

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`EMAIL_BACKEND`	string	`django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend`	Django email backend. Use `django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend` in prod.
`EMAIL_HOST`	string	(none)	SMTP host.
`EMAIL_PORT`	int	`587`	SMTP port.
`EMAIL_HOST_USER`	string	(none)	SMTP username.
`EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD`	string	(none)	SMTP password.
`EMAIL_FROM`	string	(none)	Default `From:` address for outbound mail.
`EMAIL_USE_TLS`	bool	`False`	Negotiate TLS via STARTTLS (port 587).
`EMAIL_USE_SSL`	bool	`False`	Use TLS from connect (port 465). Mutually exclusive with `EMAIL_USE_TLS`.

Cross-Platform URLs

Used for unified authentication, password-reset emails, and inter-service callbacks.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`FRONTEND_CONFIRM_EMAIL_URL`	url	(none)	Base URL for email-confirmation links.
`FRONTEND_PASSWORD_RESET_URL`	url	(none)	Base URL for password-reset links.
`DARE_FRONTEND_URL`	url	(none)	Public URL of the DARE frontend.
`DARE_BACKEND_URL`	url	(none)	Public URL of this backend.
`SOCRATIC_BOTS_FRONTEND_URL`	url	(none)	Partner platform frontend URL (optional).
`SOCRATIC_BOTS_BACKEND_URL`	url	(none)	Partner platform backend URL (optional).
`DARE_INTERNAL_KEY`	string	`local-dev-internal-key`	Shared secret for partner backends calling internal endpoints. Rotate in production.

Observability

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`SENTRY_DSN`	url	(none)	Sentry DSN. Empty disables Sentry reporting.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`MCP_USE_DOCKER`	bool	`False`	When `True`, MCP servers are launched in Docker containers; otherwise as subprocesses.

SyftBox

SyftBox integration for federated data sharing.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`SYFTBOX_ENABLED`	bool	`False`	Enable SyftBox sync.
`SYFTBOX_DATASITES_ROOT`	path	(none)	Root path for local SyftBox datasites.
`SYFTBOX_APP_NAME`	string	`dare`	App name registered with SyftBox.
`SYFTBOX_BASE_URL`	url	`https://syftbox.net`	SyftBox base URL.
`SYFTBOX_SYNC_INTERVAL_SECONDS`	int	`300`	Sync interval in seconds.

Adding a new variable

Add the variable to .example.env with a placeholder or default.
Add it to your local .env.

Declare it in config/env.py:

MY_VAR = os.getenv("MY_VAR", "default_value")

Import where needed:

from config import env
value = env.MY_VAR

Document it in this file.

Validating configuration

A quick check after editing .env:

python manage.py check
python manage.py shell -c "from config import env; print(env.OPENAI_API_KEY[:7])"

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