Environment variables

Every app

Variable
PORT	The port to listen on. Never pick your own.
HOST	The address to bind. app.listen(port) alone binds 0.0.0.0, which bypasses the platform.
BASE_PATH	Where the app is mounted, e.g. /apps/reports.
TMPDIR	Points at the app’s scratch directory.

These, VIRTUAL_ENV, R_LIBS_SITE and the TOFT_* variables named below are the platform’s to set, so a value of your own would never reach the app. toft env set, the app’s Settings tab and the API all refuse them (reserved_env_name), and a name that isn’t letters, digits and underscores (invalid_env_name).

Base paths

The proxy strips BASE_PATH before your handler sees the request and adds it back on the way out.

• Links and form actions carry it. href="/apps/reports/new", or build them from toft.app.base_path. A root-absolute /styles.css asks the platform, not your app, and 404s.
• Redirects must not. Send Location: /done; the proxy prefixes it. Relative redirects (new/, ?page=2) pass through untouched.

Read by the SDK

You rarely read these yourself.

Variable
TOFT_API_URL	Where to call the platform.
TOFT_APP_ID, TOFT_APP_SLUG	This app.
TOFT_APP_TOKEN	The app’s own credential (tofta_). Not set inside a job.
TOFT_ROLE_KEY	Verifies the signed role header.
TOFT_SCRATCH_DIR	The scratch directory.
TOFT_STORAGE	The storage attached to this app.

Inside a job

Variable
TOFT_RUN_ID, TOFT_JOB_NAME	This run, and its job.
TOFT_JOB_TOKEN	The run’s credential. Also used to send notifications and reach the app’s stores; it opens nothing else.
TOFT_PARAMS	Parameters as JSON, typed as toft.toml declares them. Each is also TOFT_PARAM_<NAME>, for shell jobs.
TOFT_SCHEDULED_FOR	The instant the run is for, RFC 3339 in the schedule’s zone. Absent when none was given.
TOFT_TRIGGER, TOFT_TRIGGER_ROLE	How the run started (app, viewer, cli, schedule or ui), and with which role (system for a schedule).
TOFT_RERUN_OF	The run this one repeats, when someone ran it again. Absent on a first run.
TOFT_DEADLINE	When the run will be stopped, RFC 3339.
TOFT_OUTPUT_URI	Where the run writes its output.

Your own variables

Set them on the app’s Settings tab. They are encrypted at rest and applied at the next start: a restart is enough, no redeploy needed.

Caution

Your app does not inherit the platform’s environment. It gets the variables above, a few basics such as PATH and HOME, and the ones you set. A variable that works on your laptop because it was in your shell will not be there.

Never set NODE_ENV=production as an app variable. It reaches the build, where npm skips dev dependencies and the build fails. The platform sets it for the running process.

Never given to an app

• The platform’s encryption key.
• The telemetry collector’s credentials.
• Git host credentials.

Rendered documents

A notebook, R Markdown or Quarto document runs at build time with your app’s environment, and its output is published. If a chunk prints a connection string, the page shows it.