For self-hosting, configure AI through environment variables in apps/web/.env.
If you used inbox-zero setup, many of these values are configured automatically.
Start here:
API keys require billing credits on the provider’s platform. A ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription does not include API access.
Providers
Use one of these provider values before the colon in *_LLMS entries:
Tiers
For most self-hosted setups, configure the default tier and optionally override cheaper or role-specific tiers:
DEFAULT_LLMS (required): normal AI tasks.ECONOMY_LLMS (optional): lower-cost model for high-volume tasks. If unset, it falls back to default.CHAT_LLMS (optional): assistant chat. If unset, it falls back to default.DRAFT_LLMS (optional): reply drafting. If unset, it falls back to default.NANO_LLMS (optional): lightweight classification and extraction. If unset, it falls back to economy/default behavior.
Each value is an ordered comma-separated list in provider:model format. The first valid entry is the primary model. Later valid entries are ordered fallbacks. Model names can contain colons; only the first colon separates the provider from the model.
Minimal example:
Provider-specific keys (for example OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) also work. See Environment Variables for the full list.
App Settings
The app also has Settings → AI for per-user keys/models, but self-hosted deployments usually keep configuration at the environment-variable level.
Sensitive Data Protection
Self-hosted deployments can choose how LLM requests handle sensitive data matches before they are sent to an AI provider. The current scanner targets likely credentials/tokens and payment-card-like numbers; it is not a full DLP or PHI classifier.
ALLOW preserves the default behavior. REDACT replaces matched values before the LLM request. BLOCK stops the request when a match is found. Leave NEXT_PUBLIC_SENSITIVE_DATA_POLICY_LOCKED=false to let users choose per account in Settings, or set it to true to enforce the deployment default for all accounts and hide the setting from the UI.
Provider-specific details
azure-foundry requires AZURE_FOUNDRY_API_KEY and AZURE_FOUNDRY_BASE_URL. Use the deployment name as the model portion of the azure-foundry:<deployment> entry.openai-compatible also requires OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_BASE_URL. Set OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_AUTH_HEADER=api-key when the server expects an api-key header instead of bearer authorization.ollama can use OLLAMA_BASE_URL and OLLAMA_MODEL.
Fallbacks
Add fallbacks by adding more entries to the same role list:
Unsupported providers, entries without configured credentials, entries without models, and duplicates are skipped with warnings.
Legacy variables
The old DEFAULT_LLM_PROVIDER / DEFAULT_LLM_MODEL, role-specific *_LLM_PROVIDER / *_LLM_MODEL, and *_LLM_FALLBACKS variables are deprecated but still supported for existing deployments. At startup, they are converted into the corresponding *_LLMS value. New deployments and CLI-generated env files should use *_LLMS.
CLI LLM providers
codex-cli and claude-code are experimental self-host options. They use
third-party community AI SDK provider packages that spawn local CLI tools, so
they are disabled unless CLI_LLM_ENABLED=true.
Use them only on trusted self-hosted deployments. Review the provider package
source, pin exact package versions, and make sure you comply with the relevant
OpenAI or Anthropic terms for your authentication method.
Codex example:
Claude Code example:
