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 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 PHP 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	Tina4-specific bind override consulted by App::serve() and Server when no $host argument is passed. Wins over the conventional HOST for the framework's own server.
PORT	7145	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_WS_PORT	(inherits port)	Separate port for the WebSocket server. Leave unset to share the HTTP port.
TINA4_HOST_NAME	localhost:7145	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_LOG_LEVEL	ERROR	Minimum message level shown when TINA4_DEBUG=true. Options: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, ALL.
TINA4_NO_BROWSER	false	Stops tina4 serve from opening your browser on every restart. Recommended during active development.
TINA4_NO_RELOAD	false	Disables the dev hot-reload signal from the Rust CLI. Use when you want a stable server for debugging.
TINA4_SUPPRESS	false	Hides the Tina4 startup banner. Useful in CI and systemd units where stdout is ingested.
TINA4_VERSION	(framework)	Override the version string reported by /__dev/api/system. Mostly for testing.
TINA4_CLI_SERVE	(none)	Set internally by the Rust CLI to signal managed mode. Do not set manually.
TINA4_PUBLIC_DIR	(empty)	Override directory served as static files at /. When unset, the static-file middleware searches src/public/ and the framework's bundled public assets.
TINA4_TEMPLATE_ROUTING	on	Auto-routing of Twig templates from src/templates/. Set to off, false, 0, no, or disabled to require explicit Router::get() for every URL.
TINA4_ALLOW_LEGACY_ENV	false	Bypass the v3.12 boot guard that rejects un-prefixed legacy env vars (DATABASE_URL, SECRET, SMTP_HOST, etc.). Use only in CI / migration scripts during the transition window.
TINA4_ENV_FILE	.env	Alternate path for the dotenv file loaded at boot. Resolved relative to the project root unless absolute. Useful for per-environment files (e.g. .env.production) without symlinking.
TINA4_HEALTH_PATH	/health	Path the built-in health-check route registers under. Set /__health to align with the v3 documented alias used by the other frameworks; the default keeps /health for back-compat with existing probes.

---

Routing

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_TRAILING_SLASH_REDIRECT	false	When truthy, any request path ending in / (other than the bare root) is 301-redirected to the slash-stripped form. The query string is preserved. Lets you normalise URLs without writing per-route handlers.

---

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 by Auth::validateApiKey() as a fallback to JWT.

---

Database

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_DATABASE_URL	sqlite:///data/app.db	Connection URL. Scheme selects the driver: sqlite, postgres, mysql, mssql, sqlserver, firebird.
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_DATABASE_URL	(empty)	Legacy alias for TINA4_DATABASE_URL. Prefer TINA4_DATABASE_URL in new projects.
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	60	Query cache TTL in seconds when TINA4_DB_CACHE=true.
TINA4_DB_POOL	0	Default connection-pool size used when a caller constructs Database without passing $pool. 0 keeps the single-connection behaviour; values above zero enable pooled adapters lazily. An explicit constructor argument always wins.
TINA4_MIGRATION_ID	(timestamp)	Override the migration ID used when recording applied migrations.

---

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	Allowed request methods.
TINA4_CORS_HEADERS	Content-Type,Authorization,X-Requested-With	Allowed request headers.
TINA4_CORS_CREDENTIALS	false	Send Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true. Required for cross-origin cookies.
TINA4_CORS_MAX_AGE	600	Preflight cache lifetime in seconds.

---

Security Headers

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_CSP	default-src 'self'	Content-Security-Policy header.
TINA4_CSRF	true	CSRF token validation on POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE. Requires _csrf in the body or X-CSRF-Token header.
TINA4_HSTS	(empty/off)	Strict-Transport-Security max-age in seconds. Set 31536000 in production with HTTPS.
TINA4_FRAME_OPTIONS	DENY	X-Frame-Options header. Set SAMEORIGIN if you embed your own app in an iframe.
TINA4_REFERRER_POLICY	strict-origin-when-cross-origin	Referrer-Policy header.
TINA4_PERMISSIONS_POLICY	(empty)	Permissions-Policy header. Example: geolocation=(), microphone=().

---

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_HANDLER	(inherits _BACKEND)	Alternate handler class name. Overrides TINA4_SESSION_BACKEND.
TINA4_SESSION_NAME	tina4_session	Cookie name written by the framework session manager. Distinct from TINA4_PHP_SESSION_NAME, which controls the native PHP session cookie.
TINA4_SESSION_TTL	3600	Session expiry in seconds.
TINA4_SESSION_SAMESITE	Lax	SameSite cookie attribute. Options: Strict, Lax, None.
TINA4_SESSION_HTTPONLY	true	Emit the HttpOnly attribute on the session cookie. Leave on unless JavaScript genuinely needs to read the cookie.
TINA4_SESSION_SECURE	false	Emit the Secure attribute on the session cookie. Setting TINA4_SESSION_SAMESITE=None forces this to true regardless of the value here.
TINA4_SESSION_PATH	data/sessions	Filesystem path for the file backend.
TINA4_PHP_SESSION_NAME	PHPSESSID	Cookie name used by native PHP $_SESSION (separate from the framework session).
TINA4_PHP_SESSION_PATH	(system temp)	session.save_path for native PHP sessions. The framework configures it before session_start() so the SAPI and the built-in server share session storage.

Redis/Valkey session backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SESSION_REDIS_HOST	localhost	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_URL	(none)	Full redis:// URL. Overrides the individual fields when set.
TINA4_SESSION_VALKEY_HOST	localhost	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.

MongoDB session backend

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_URL	mongodb://localhost:27017	MongoDB connection string.
TINA4_SESSION_MONGO_DB	tina4	MongoDB database name.

---

Templates

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_TEMPLATE_CACHE_TTL	0	Lifetime of compiled Frond templates in production, in seconds. 0 means cache forever (no filesystem checks per render); a positive value re-reads and re-tokenises a template once it has been cached for that long. Ignored when TINA4_DEBUG=true — debug mode always re-reads.

---

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. Oldest entries evicted first.
TINA4_CACHE_URL	(none)	Connection URL for remote cache backends (Redis, Memcached).

---

Queues

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

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 Backplane

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE	(none)	Backplane type. Set redis for multi-instance broadcasts.
TINA4_WS_BACKPLANE_URL	redis://localhost:6379	Connection URL for the 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_USERNAME	(none)	IMAP authentication username.
TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_PASSWORD	(none)	IMAP authentication password.
TINA4_MAIL_IMAP_ENCRYPTION	tls	IMAP transport encryption. Accepts tls, starttls, or none; any other value is silently coerced back to tls. Independent of TINA4_MAIL_ENCRYPTION so Gmail-style setups can use IMAPS on 993 alongside SMTP STARTTLS on 587.
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 are also accepted as aliases for the TINA4_MAIL_* equivalents. New projects should use the TINA4_MAIL_* names.

---

Logging

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_LOG_LEVEL	ERROR	Minimum log level written to files. Options: ALL, DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR.
TINA4_LOG_DEBUG	0	Numeric flag for debug-level messages. Used internally by Debug::message().
TINA4_LOG_INFO	1	Numeric flag for info-level messages.
TINA4_LOG_ERROR	3	Numeric flag for error-level messages.
TINA4_LOG_MAX_SIZE	10485760	Per-file log size limit in bytes (10 MB). Rotated when exceeded.
TINA4_LOG_KEEP	5	Number of rotated log files to retain.

Log pipeline (sink, format, rotation)

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.

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_LOG_FILE	(empty = stdout only)	Primary log filename. A relative value is joined with TINA4_LOG_DIR; an absolute path overrides both directory and filename. Leave empty to skip file output entirely.
TINA4_LOG_DIR	logs	Directory log files are written into when TINA4_LOG_OUTPUT includes file. Created on first write if missing.
TINA4_LOG_FORMAT	text	Wire format for emitted lines. text is human-readable; json emits one structured object per line for ingestion by Loki, ELK, etc.
TINA4_LOG_OUTPUT	stdout	Where lines are sent. stdout writes to the process stream (great for systemd / containers), file writes only to TINA4_LOG_FILE, both does both.
TINA4_LOG_CRITICAL	false	Enable Log::critical() emission. Off by default so security-relevant criticals can be intentionally surfaced rather than buried in routine output.
TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_SIZE	10485760	Rotation threshold in bytes (10 MB default). Set 0 to disable rotation entirely — useful when an external tool (logrotate, Docker driver) owns the file.
TINA4_LOG_ROTATE_KEEP	5	Number of rotated backups to retain. Older files are pruned on rotation.

---

Uploads

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

---

Localisation

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

---

Services (background tasks)

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SERVICE_DIR	src/services	Directory scanned for service classes.
TINA4_SERVICE_SLEEP	1	Default tick interval (seconds) when a service does not specify one.

---

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_RAG_TOPK	4	Number of nearest-neighbour matches the dev dashboard RAG search returns per query.
TINA4_AI_MODEL	nomic-embed-text	Embedding model used to index the framework and src/.
TINA4_VISION_URL	http://andrevanzuydam.com:11434	Vision-model endpoint surfaced by the dev dashboard /__dev/api/vision probe.
TINA4_EMBED_URL	http://andrevanzuydam.com:11435	Embeddings endpoint surfaced by the dev dashboard /__dev/api/embed probe.
TINA4_IMAGE_URL	http://andrevanzuydam.com:11436	Image-generation endpoint (e.g. SDXL Turbo) for the dev dashboard image tools.
TINA4_SUPERVISOR_URL	(framework port + 2000)	Override the URL of the Rust agent supervisor that the dev dashboard proxies for /__dev/api/supervise/* and /__dev/api/execute. Defaults to http://127.0.0.1:9145 when TINA4_PORT=7145.
TINA4_MCP	(inherits TINA4_DEBUG)	Master switch for the MCP subsystem. When unset, follows TINA4_DEBUG — MCP is on in dev and off in prod. Set to false to keep MCP disabled while leaving debug mode on, or to true to expose MCP from a production server (combine with TINA4_MCP_REMOTE if binding off-localhost).
TINA4_MCP_PORT	(framework port + 2000)	Port the MCP server listens on. Defaults to TINA4_PORT + 2000 (so 7145 → 9145). Set explicitly when running multiple Tina4 instances on the same host.
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.

---

Swagger / OpenAPI

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_SWAGGER_TITLE	Tina4 API	OpenAPI spec title shown in the Swagger UI.
TINA4_SWAGGER_DESCRIPTION	Auto-generated from Tina4 routes	OpenAPI spec description.
TINA4_SWAGGER_VERSION	1.0.0	OpenAPI spec version.
TINA4_SWAGGER_ENABLED	(inherits TINA4_DEBUG)	Master switch for Swagger UI and the /swagger//swagger.json routes. When unset, follows TINA4_DEBUG so Swagger is on in dev and off in prod automatically. Set explicitly to expose docs in production.
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.

---

GraphQL

Variable	Default	Description
TINA4_GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT	/graphql	URL path the framework binds the GraphQL handler to. The same value is used when generating __schema links and the dev-dashboard query console URL.
TINA4_GRAPHQL_AUTO_SCHEMA	true	Auto-generate the GraphQL schema from registered ORM models. Set to false to skip introspection scaffolding when you supply a hand-written schema.

---

HTTP Status Constants

For use in route handlers instead of raw integers:

return $response->json($data, \Tina4\HTTP_CREATED);
return $response("<error/>", \Tina4\HTTP_BAD_REQUEST, \Tina4\APPLICATION_XML);

See Chapter 3: Request and Response for the full table.

---

Log-Level Constants

Passed to Debug::message() to tag severity:

Constant	Description
TINA4_LOG_DEBUG	Verbose developer messages.
TINA4_LOG_INFO	Normal operational messages.
TINA4_LOG_WARNING	Non-fatal anomalies.
TINA4_LOG_ERROR	Recoverable errors.
TINA4_LOG_CRITICAL	Fatal or security-relevant events.

\Tina4\Debug::message("User " . $id . " missed the cache", TINA4_LOG_INFO);

---

Minimal .env for Development

TINA4_DEBUG=true
TINA4_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
TINA4_NO_BROWSER=true

That is it. 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.