Deployment Environment Variables

These are the environment variables you are most likely to care about when moving a robot between local development and deployment.

Usually required in deployed environments

• GOPHER_ENCRYPTION_KEY
  • Unlocks encrypted config values and encrypted robot keys.
• GOPHER_CUSTOM_REPOSITORY
  • The git URL for the robot repository when bootstrapping from an empty directory.
• GOPHER_DEPLOY_KEY
  • A deploy key the robot can use to clone GOPHER_CUSTOM_REPOSITORY.

Commonly useful

• GOPHER_ENVIRONMENT
  • Selects custom/conf/environments/<environment>.yaml.
  • Defaults to development for scaffolded robots when not set.
• GOPHER_CUSTOM_BRANCH
  • Overrides the branch used for custom config checkout and update flows.
• GOPHER_SSH_PORT
  • Overrides the SSH connector listen port.
• GOPHER_LOGDEST
  • Overrides the log destination, for example stdout or robot.log.
• GOPHER_LOGLEVEL
  • Sets the runtime log level.
• GOPHER_MESSAGE_FORMAT
  • Overrides the default outgoing format. If unset, v3 defaults to BasicMarkdown.

Variables that matter mostly during local development

• GOPHER_ENVIRONMENT=development
  • Explicitly pins the development environment if you maintain several.
• GOPHER_SSH_PORT
  • Helpful when you run more than one local robot.
• GOPHER_DEFAULT_PROTOCOL
  • Useful only for special multi-protocol routing cases.

Practical advice

• Keep .env mode-restricted and out of casual reach.
• Prefer putting deployment-specific values in .env and stable robot behavior in custom/conf/.
• Do not depend on old top-level GOPHER_PROTOCOL habits as your main environment selector; v3 expects GOPHER_ENVIRONMENT to drive environment-specific config.