---
title: "Configuration"
description: "Environment variables for Strix"
---

Configure Strix using environment variables or a config file.

## LLM Configuration

<ParamField path="STRIX_LLM" type="string" required>
  Model name in LiteLLM format (e.g., `openai/gpt-5.4`, `anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6`).
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="LLM_API_KEY" type="string">
  API key for your LLM provider. Not required for local models or cloud provider auth (Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock).
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="LLM_API_BASE" type="string">
  Custom API base URL. Also accepts `OPENAI_API_BASE`, `LITELLM_BASE_URL`, or `OLLAMA_API_BASE`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="LLM_EXTRA_HEADERS" type="string">
  Extra HTTP headers sent on every LLM request, as a JSON object (e.g.
  `{"X-Feature-Key":"value","X-Tenant":"acme"}`). Useful for OpenAI-compatible
  gateways that require attribution or routing headers in addition to the bearer
  token. The bearer token itself still comes from `LLM_API_KEY`. Applies to both
  the LiteLLM and native OpenAI routing paths.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="LLM_TIMEOUT" default="300" type="integer">
  Request timeout in seconds for LLM calls.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_LLM_MAX_RETRIES" default="5" type="integer">
  Maximum number of retries for LLM API calls on transient failures.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_REASONING_EFFORT" default="high" type="string">
  Control thinking effort for reasoning models. Valid values: `none`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`, `max`. Defaults to `medium` for quick scan mode.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_MEMORY_COMPRESSOR_TIMEOUT" default="30" type="integer">
  Timeout in seconds for memory compression operations (context summarization).
</ParamField>

### Dedicated deduplication model

Finding deduplication is a cheap, structured classification task. By default it
runs on the main model, but you can route it to a smaller/cheaper model without
affecting the agents that do the actual testing.

<ParamField path="STRIX_DEDUPE_MODEL" type="string">
  Model used to judge whether a candidate finding duplicates an existing report.
  Falls back to `STRIX_LLM` when unset.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="DEDUPE_LLM_API_KEY" type="string">
  Optional provider key for the deduplication model.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="DEDUPE_LLM_API_BASE" type="string">
  Optional custom API base URL for the deduplication model. Use when the dedupe
  model runs on a different endpoint than the main model.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="DEDUPE_LLM_EXTRA_HEADERS" type="string">
  Optional JSON object of extra HTTP headers sent on every deduplication-model
  request, e.g. `{"X-Feature-Key":"value"}`. A dedicated dedupe model never
  inherits `LLM_EXTRA_HEADERS`; set this when its endpoint needs custom headers.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_DEDUPE_REASONING_EFFORT" type="string">
  Reasoning effort for the deduplication model. Defaults to the model's own
  baseline when unset.
</ParamField>

## Safety Review

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MODE" default="off" type="string">
  Default action policy. Valid values: `off`, `guarded`, and `observe`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MODEL" type="string">
  Optional model used for contextual action review. Falls back to `STRIX_LLM`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_REASONING_EFFORT" default="low" type="string">
  Reasoning effort for the safety reviewer.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_TIMEOUT" default="60" type="integer">
  Timeout for one model request in a safety review. A review makes at most two
  requests, so the wall-clock budget is twice this value plus the inspection
  timeout.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS" default="8192" type="integer">
  Output-token budget for one safety review turn. On a reasoning model this
  covers reasoning tokens as well as the verdict; too small a value truncates
  the decision and fails closed.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MAX_ARTIFACT_BYTES" default="262144" type="integer">
  Per-file limit for inspected script and dependency source.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MAX_TOTAL_ARTIFACT_BYTES" default="4194304" type="integer">
  Combined limit for one script's whole inspected dependency closure.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_MAX_DEPENDENCIES" default="32" type="integer">
  Maximum local modules collected for one script entrypoint.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_INSPECTION_TIMEOUT" default="5" type="integer">
  Wall-clock limit for the reviewer's optional isolated inspection script.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SAFETY_INSPECTION_IMAGE" type="string">
  Optional Docker image for isolated inspection scripts. Defaults to the scan
  sandbox image. The image must provide Python 3 and a `pentester` user.
</ParamField>

See [Safety Modes](/usage/safety-modes) for behavior and limitations.

## Optional Features

<ParamField path="PERPLEXITY_API_KEY" type="string">
  API key for Perplexity AI. Enables real-time web search during scans for OSINT and vulnerability research.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="POSTMAN_API_KEY" type="string">
  Postman API key (`PMAK-…`). Enables fetching Postman collections by id as a target (`postman://<collection-uid>`), and Postman environments (`postman://<collection-uid>?env=<environment-uid>`) to resolve collection variables. Not needed when passing a local collection export file.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_TELEMETRY" default="1" type="string">
  Telemetry toggle. Set to `0`, `false`, `no`, or `off` to disable telemetry (PostHog, Scarf, OTEL).
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="TRACELOOP_BASE_URL" type="string">
  OTLP/Traceloop base URL for remote OpenTelemetry export. If unset, Strix keeps traces local only.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="TRACELOOP_API_KEY" type="string">
  API key used for remote trace export. Remote export is enabled only when both `TRACELOOP_BASE_URL` and `TRACELOOP_API_KEY` are set.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="TRACELOOP_HEADERS" type="string">
  Optional custom OTEL headers (JSON object or `key=value,key2=value2`). Useful for Langfuse or custom/self-hosted OTLP gateways.
</ParamField>

When remote OTEL vars are not set, Strix still writes complete run telemetry locally to:

```bash
strix_runs/<run_name>/events.jsonl
```

When remote vars are set, Strix dual-writes telemetry to both local JSONL and the remote OTEL endpoint.

## Docker Configuration

<ParamField path="STRIX_IMAGE" default="ghcr.io/usestrix/strix-sandbox:1.3.0" type="string">
  Docker image to use for the sandbox container.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="DOCKER_HOST" type="string">
  Docker daemon socket path. Use for remote Docker hosts or custom configurations.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_RUNTIME_BACKEND" default="docker" type="string">
  Runtime backend for the sandbox environment.
</ParamField>

## Sandbox Configuration

<ParamField path="STRIX_SANDBOX_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT" default="120" type="integer">
  Maximum execution time in seconds for sandbox operations.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="STRIX_SANDBOX_CONNECT_TIMEOUT" default="10" type="integer">
  Timeout in seconds for connecting to the sandbox container.
</ParamField>

## Config File

Strix stores configuration in `~/.strix/cli-config.json`. You can also specify a custom config file:

```bash
strix --target ./app --config /path/to/config.json
```

**Config file format:**

```json
{
  "env": {
    "STRIX_LLM": "openai/gpt-5.4",
    "LLM_API_KEY": "sk-...",
    "STRIX_REASONING_EFFORT": "high"
  }
}
```

## Example Setup

```bash
# Required
export STRIX_LLM="openai/gpt-5.4"
export LLM_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Optional: Enable web search
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."

# Optional: Custom timeouts
export LLM_TIMEOUT="600"
export STRIX_SANDBOX_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT="300"

```
