Environment Variables

⚠️ BREAKING CHANGE — Tina4 v3.12.0

Every framework env var now requires the TINA4_ prefix. The legacy un-prefixed names (DATABASE_URL, SECRET, SMTP_HOST, HOST_NAME, etc.) no longer work. Setting them at startup makes the framework refuse to boot with a list of renames.

Run tina4 env --migrate to rewrite your existing .env automatically, or rename manually using the table below. The runtime guard prints the same mapping if it detects legacy names.

Conventional names stay un-prefixed: PORT, HOST, NODE_ENV, RACK_ENV, RUBY_ENV, ENVIRONMENT. These are runtime/PaaS conventions, not framework config.

Tina4 Node.js is configured through environment variables, read from .env at the project root. Every variable has a sensible default — most projects set three or four values and leave the rest alone.

This chapter lists every variable the Node.js framework reads, grouped by subsystem. Start with the minimum-config examples at the end, then come back here when you need to tune something specific.

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Core Server

Variable	Default	Description
HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address. 0.0.0.0 listens on every interface. 127.0.0.1 restricts to localhost.
TINA4_HOST	0.0.0.0	Framework-prefixed bind address. Takes precedence over HOST when both are set.
PORT	7148	HTTP server port. The Rust CLI prefers TINA4_PORT but falls back to PORT.
TINA4_PORT	(inherits PORT)	Explicit Tina4-specific port override. Takes precedence over PORT when both are set.
TINA4_HOST_NAME	localhost:7148	Fully-qualified host used in generated absolute URLs (Swagger, OAuth redirects, emails).
TINA4_DEBUG	false	Master debug toggle. Enables Swagger UI, dev dashboard, live reload, template dump filter, error overlay. Never set to true in production.
TINA4_SUPPRESS	false	Suppresses the boot banner on startup. Useful for clean CI logs and embedded usage.
TINA4_ENV_FILE	.env	Path to the dotenv file loaded at startup. Relative paths resolve from the project root.
TINA4_HEALTH_PATH	/__health	Path for the built-in health endpoint. Legacy /health alias is also registered when this points at /__health.
TINA4_NO_BROWSER	false	Stops tina4 serve from opening your browser on every restart.
TINA4_NO_RELOAD	false	Disables the dev hot-reload signal from the Rust CLI. Use when you want a stable server for debugging.
TINA4_PRODUCTION	false	Forces production-mode startup (cluster mode, debug overlays disabled). Set automatically by tina4 serve --production.
TINA4_ALLOW_LEGACY_ENV	false	Bypass the v3.12 env-prefix guard. CI / migration scripts only — never enable in production.

---

Secrets and Authentication

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SECRET	(empty)	JWT signing secret. Must be long, random, and unique per environment. Never commit.
TINA4_JWT_ALGORITHM	HS256	JWT signing algorithm. Supports HS256, HS384, HS512.
TINA4_TOKEN_LIMIT	60	JWT token lifetime in minutes.
TINA4_API_KEY	(empty)	Static API key used as a fallback to JWT.

---

Database

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_DATABASE_URL	(required)	Connection URL. Scheme selects the driver: sqlite, postgres, mysql.
TINA4_DATABASE_USERNAME	(empty)	Overrides the username embedded in TINA4_DATABASE_URL.
TINA4_DATABASE_PASSWORD	(empty)	Overrides the password embedded in TINA4_DATABASE_URL.
TINA4_DATABASE_FIREBIRD_PATH	(empty)	Overrides the database path/alias parsed from TINA4_DATABASE_URL for Firebird. Useful for Windows backslash paths and split-config setups.
TINA4_AUTOCOMMIT	false	Auto-commit after every write. Default is off — call commit() explicitly.
TINA4_DB_CACHE	false	Enables in-memory query-result caching for read queries.
TINA4_DB_CACHE_TTL	30	Query cache TTL in seconds when TINA4_DB_CACHE=true.
TINA4_DB_POOL	0	Connection-pool size override. Applied to the database adapter's pool config when not set explicitly in code. 0 leaves the adapter default in place.
TINA4_ORM_PLURAL_TABLE_NAMES	true	When true, the ORM pluralises class names into table names (User → users).

---

CORS

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_CORS_ORIGINS	*	Comma-separated allowed origins. Lock down to real domains in production.
TINA4_CORS_METHODS	GET,POST,PUT,PATCH,DELETE,OPTIONS	Comma-separated list of allowed methods on preflight responses.
TINA4_CORS_HEADERS	Content-Type,Authorization	Comma-separated list of allowed request headers on preflight responses.
TINA4_CORS_MAX_AGE	86400	Preflight cache lifetime in seconds.
TINA4_CORS_CREDENTIALS	true	Sets Access-Control-Allow-Credentials.

---

Security Headers

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_CSP	default-src 'self'	Content-Security-Policy header.
TINA4_CSRF	false	CSRF token validation on POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE.
TINA4_HSTS	(empty/off)	Strict-Transport-Security max-age in seconds. Set 31536000 in production with HTTPS.
TINA4_FRAME_OPTIONS	SAMEORIGIN	X-Frame-Options header.
TINA4_REFERRER_POLICY	strict-origin-when-cross-origin	Referrer-Policy header.
TINA4_PERMISSIONS_POLICY	camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()	Permissions-Policy header.

---

Rate Limiting

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_RATE_LIMIT	100	Maximum requests per window per IP. Set 0 to disable.
TINA4_RATE_WINDOW	60	Rate-limit window in seconds.

---

Sessions

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SESSION_BACKEND	file	Storage backend. Options: file, redis, valkey, mongo, database.
TINA4_SESSION_NAME	tina4_session	Session cookie name.
TINA4_SESSION_TTL	1800	Session expiry in seconds (30 minutes).
TINA4_SESSION_SAMESITE	Lax	SameSite cookie attribute. Options: Strict, Lax, None.
TINA4_SESSION_HTTPONLY	true	Emit the HttpOnly flag on the session cookie.
TINA4_SESSION_SECURE	false	Emit the Secure flag on the session cookie. Enable behind HTTPS.
TINA4_SESSION_PATH	data/sessions	Filesystem path for the file backend.

Redis/Valkey session backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_URL	(none)	Full redis:// URL. Overrides host/port when set.
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_HOST	127.0.0.1	Redis host.
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_PORT	6379	Redis port.
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_PASSWORD	(none)	Redis auth password.
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_DB	0	Redis database number.
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_PREFIX	tina4:session:	Key prefix for stored sessions.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_HOST	127.0.0.1	Valkey host.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_PORT	6379	Valkey port.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_PASSWORD	(none)	Valkey auth password.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_DB	0	Valkey database number.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_PREFIX	tina4:session:	Key prefix for stored sessions.

MongoDB session backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_URI	(none)	Full MongoDB connection string. Overrides host/port when set.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_HOST	127.0.0.1	MongoDB host.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_PORT	27017	MongoDB port.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_USERNAME	(none)	MongoDB username.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_PASSWORD	(none)	MongoDB password.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_DB	tina4_sessions	MongoDB database name.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_COLLECTION	sessions	MongoDB collection name.

---

Cache

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_CACHE_BACKEND	memory	Response cache backend. Options: memory, file, redis.
TINA4_CACHE_DIR	data/cache	Cache directory for the file backend.
TINA4_CACHE_TTL	60	Default cache TTL in seconds.
TINA4_CACHE_MAX_ENTRIES	1000	Maximum cache entries.
TINA4_CACHE_URL	redis://localhost:6379	Connection URL for remote cache backends.

---

Queues

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_QUEUE_BACKEND	file	Queue backend. Options: file, rabbitmq, kafka, mongodb.
TINA4_QUEUE_PATH	data/queue	Filesystem path for the file backend.
TINA4_QUEUE_URL	(none)	Connection URL for remote backends (rabbitmq/kafka).

Kafka queue backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_KAFKA_BROKERS	localhost:9092	Comma-separated broker list.
TINA4_KAFKA_GROUP_ID	tina4_consumer_group	Kafka consumer group ID.

RabbitMQ queue backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_RABBITMQ_HOST	localhost	RabbitMQ host.
TINA4_RABBITMQ_PORT	5672	RabbitMQ port.
TINA4_RABBITMQ_USERNAME	guest	RabbitMQ username.
TINA4_RABBITMQ_PASSWORD	guest	RabbitMQ password.
TINA4_RABBITMQ_VHOST	/	RabbitMQ virtual host.

MongoDB queue backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_MONGO_URI	(none)	Full MongoDB connection string. Overrides host/port when set.
TINA4_MONGO_HOST	localhost	MongoDB host.
TINA4_MONGO_PORT	27017	MongoDB port.
TINA4_MONGO_USERNAME	(none)	MongoDB username.
TINA4_MONGO_PASSWORD	(none)	MongoDB password.
TINA4_MONGO_DB	tina4	MongoDB database name.
TINA4_MONGO_COLLECTION	tina4_queue	MongoDB collection name for jobs.

---

WebSocket

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_WS_PORT	8080	Default WebSocket server port when one isn't passed to the constructor.
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE	(none)	Backplane type for multi-instance broadcasts. Options: redis, nats.
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE_URL	redis://localhost:6379 (redis) / nats://localhost:4222 (nats)	Connection URL for the chosen backplane.

---

Email

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_MAIL_HOST	(none)	SMTP server hostname.
TINA4_MAIL_PORT	587	SMTP server port.
TINA4_MAIL_USERNAME	(none)	SMTP authentication username.
TINA4_MAIL_PASSWORD	(none)	SMTP authentication password.
TINA4_MAIL_FROM	(none)	Default sender email address.
TINA4_MAIL_FROM_NAME	(none)	Default sender display name.
TINA4_MAIL_ENCRYPTION	tls	Connection encryption. Options: tls, ssl, none.
TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_HOST	(none)	IMAP server for inbound mail.
TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_PORT	993	IMAP server port.
TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_ENCRYPTION	tls	IMAP transport security. Options: tls, starttls, none. Node also accepts ssl as an alias for tls for back-compat.
TINA4_MAILBOX_DIR	data/mailbox	Dev mailbox directory. All outbound mail lands here when TINA4_DEBUG=true.

TINA4_MAIL_HOST, TINA4_MAIL_PORT, TINA4_MAIL_USERNAME, TINA4_MAIL_PASSWORD, TINA4_MAIL_FROM, TINA4_MAIL_FROM_NAME, TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_HOST, TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_PORT, TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_USERNAME, TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_PASSWORD are accepted as legacy aliases. New projects should use the TINA4_MAIL_* names.

---

Logging

Logs default to stdout. Set TINA4_LOG_OUTPUT=file plus TINA4_LOG_FILE=app.log to write to disk; the framework rotates at TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_SIZE bytes and keeps TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_KEEP backups using stdlib fs calls.

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_LOG_LEVEL	DEBUG	Minimum log level written to console and files. Options: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, ALL.
TINA4_LOG_MAX_SIZE	10	Per-file log size limit in megabytes. Rotated when exceeded.
TINA4_LOG_KEEP	5	Number of rotated log files to retain.

File logging

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_LOG_FILE	(empty = stdout only)	Explicit log file path. Absolute paths are used as-is; relative paths resolve against TINA4_LOG_DIR.
TINA4_LOG_DIR	logs	Directory for log files when TINA4_LOG_FILE is relative or unset.
TINA4_LOG_FORMAT	text	File log format. Options: text, json.
TINA4_LOG_OUTPUT	stdout	Where to write logs. Options: stdout, file, both.
TINA4_LOG_CRITICAL	false	Enable the CRITICAL level shortcut. Off by default to keep the log surface compact.
TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_SIZE	10485760	Rotate the file when it reaches this many bytes (10 MB). 0 disables rotation. Node uses an atomic fs.renameSync shift on each write.
TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_KEEP	5	Number of rotated historical files to retain.

---

Localisation

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_LOCALE	en	Default locale for the I18n module.
TINA4_LOCALE_DIR	src/locales	Directory containing locale JSON files.

---

Uploads

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE	10485760	Maximum multipart upload size in bytes (10 MB).

---

Services (background tasks)

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SERVICE_DIR	src/services	Directory scanned for service classes.
TINA4_SERVICE_SLEEP	5	Seconds the service runner sleeps between empty polls.

---

Routing

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_TEMPLATE_ROUTING	on	Auto-route any request without a matching handler to a same-named Frond template. Set to off, false, 0, no, or disabled for explicit-only routing.
TINA4_TRAILING_SLASH_REDIRECT	false	When true, requests with a trailing slash are 301-redirected to the canonical no-trailing-slash form.

---

Templates

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_TEMPLATE_CACHE_TTL	0	Frond template cache TTL in seconds. 0 (the default) caches permanently for the process lifetime.

---

GraphQL

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_GRAPHQL_AUTO_SCHEMA	true	Auto-build a schema from registered ORM models when the dev server starts. Set false to require an explicit schema.
TINA4_GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT	/graphql	Path the GraphQL handler is mounted on.

---

AI and MCP Tooling

The dashboard AI chat and the framework's RAG-based code search both default to a local qwen2.5-coder model served via Ollama. Nothing leaves your machine unless you point TINA4_AI_URL at a remote endpoint.

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_AI_URL	http://localhost:11434	OpenAI-compatible HTTP endpoint for the chat/completion model (Ollama by default).
TINA4_AI_MODEL	qwen2.5-coder	Model identifier the endpoint should serve.
TINA4_RAG_URL	(inherits TINA4_AI_URL)	Embedding endpoint for the framework RAG index.
TINA4_AI_MODEL	nomic-embed-text	Embedding model used to index the framework and src/.
TINA4_MCP_REMOTE	false	Allow the MCP server to bind on non-localhost interfaces. Never enable in production.
TINA4_NO_AI_PORT	false	Disables the MCP port listener in dev mode.
TINA4_OVERRIDE_CLIENT	false	Allow the framework to start without the Rust CLI (tina4 serve). Used in Docker images and CI runners; bypasses SCSS compilation, the file watcher, and live reload.

---

MCP

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_MCP	(inherits TINA4_DEBUG)	Enables the MCP server. Defaults to true when TINA4_DEBUG=true, false otherwise.
TINA4_MCP_PORT	(main port + 2000)	Port the MCP server listens on. Defaults to the framework HTTP port plus 2000.

---

Swagger / OpenAPI

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SWAGGER_TITLE	Tina4 API	OpenAPI spec title.
TINA4_SWAGGER_DESCRIPTION	Auto-generated API documentation	OpenAPI spec description.
TINA4_SWAGGER_VERSION	0.0.1	OpenAPI spec version.
TINA4_SWAGGER_CONTACT_EMAIL	(empty)	Contact email written into the generated OpenAPI info.contact block.
TINA4_SWAGGER_LICENSE	(empty)	License name written into the generated OpenAPI info.license block.
TINA4_SWAGGER_ENABLED	(inherits TINA4_DEBUG)	Mount the Swagger UI. Defaults to enabled when TINA4_DEBUG=true. Force true/false to override.

---

Minimal .env for Development

TINA4_DEBUG=true
TINA4_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
TINA4_NO_BROWSER=true

Debug mode lights up the Swagger UI, the dev dashboard, detailed error pages, and live reload. Keeping the browser flag on stops a new tab opening every time you save a file.

---

Minimal .env for Production

TINA4_SECRET=your-long-random-secret-here
TINA4_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@db-host:5432/myapp
TINA4_CORS_ORIGINS=https://myapp.com,https://www.myapp.com
TINA4_HSTS=31536000
TINA4_MAIL_HOST=smtp.example.com
TINA4_MAIL_PORT=587
TINA4_MAIL_USERNAME=noreply@myapp.com
TINA4_MAIL_PASSWORD=your-smtp-password
TINA4_MAIL_FROM=noreply@myapp.com

No TINA4_DEBUG. It defaults to false, which is what you want in production. Set a real secret, a real database, locked-down CORS origins, HSTS, and SMTP credentials if you send email. Everything else has a production-appropriate default.