Skip to content

Environment Variables Reference

Complete reference for all environment variables used in VoiceERA services.

Table of Contents

  1. Backend Environment
  2. Voice Server Environment
  3. Frontend Environment
  4. AI4Bharat Services
  5. Security & Secrets

Backend Environment

File: voicera_backend/.env

Database Configuration

# MongoDB Connection
MONGODB_HOST=mongodb
MONGODB_PORT=27017
MONGODB_USER=admin
MONGODB_PASSWORD=admin123
MONGODB_DATABASE=voicera

# Connection Pool
MONGODB_MAX_POOL_SIZE=50
MONGODB_TIMEOUT_MS=5000
MONGODB_SERVER_SELECTION_TIMEOUT_MS=5000

MinIO Configuration

# MinIO S3-Compatible Storage
MINIO_HOST=minio
MINIO_PORT=9000
MINIO_ROOT_USER=minioadmin
MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=minioadmin
MINIO_REGION=us-east-1
MINIO_SECURE=false          # true for HTTPS in production

# Buckets (auto-created if not exist)
MINIO_BUCKET_RECORDINGS=recordings
MINIO_BUCKET_TRANSCRIPTS=transcripts
MINIO_BUCKET_AGENTS=agent-configs

JWT & Security

# JWT Configuration
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-change-this
JWT_ALGORITHM=HS256
JWT_EXPIRATION_HOURS=24
JWT_REFRESH_EXPIRATION_DAYS=30

# CORS Configuration
CORS_ORIGINS=["http://localhost:3000","https://yourdomain.com"]
CORS_ALLOW_CREDENTIALS=true
CORS_MAX_AGE=3600

API Configuration

# API Settings
API_TITLE=VoiceERA API
API_VERSION=1.0.0
API_DESCRIPTION=Voice AI Platform with Telephony Integration
API_DOCS_ENABLED=true            # /docs endpoint
API_REDOC_ENABLED=true           # /redoc endpoint

# Server
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8000
WORKERS=4
WORKER_CLASS=uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker
RELOAD=false                     # true in development

Logging

# Logging Configuration
LOG_LEVEL=INFO                   # DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL
LOG_FORMAT=json                  # json or text
LOG_FILE=/var/log/voicera/backend.log
LOG_MAX_BYTES=104857600          # 100MB
LOG_BACKUP_COUNT=10

Email Configuration (Optional)

# SMTP for email notifications
SMTP_ENABLED=false
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USE_TLS=true
SMTP_USER=your-email@gmail.com
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-app-password
SMTP_FROM=noreply@voicera.ai

Voice Server Environment

File: voice_2_voice_server/.env

Vobiz Telephony

# Vobiz API Configuration
VOBIZ_ENABLED=true
VOBIZ_API_BASE=https://api.vobiz.ai/api/v1
VOBIZ_AUTH_ID=your_auth_id
VOBIZ_AUTH_PASSWORD=your_auth_password
VOBIZ_WEBHOOK_URL=https://yourdomain.com/vobiz/webhook

LLM Provider

LLM_PROVIDER=openai
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-api-key-here
OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4                  # gpt-4, gpt-3.5-turbo
OPENAI_TEMPERATURE=0.7
OPENAI_MAX_TOKENS=200
OPENAI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30

LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-3-opus      # claude-3-opus, claude-3-sonnet
ANTHROPIC_TEMPERATURE=0.7

LLM_PROVIDER=local
LOCAL_LLM_API_BASE=http://localhost:8000
LOCAL_LLM_MODEL=mistral-7b
LOCAL_LLM_TEMPERATURE=0.7

Speech-to-Text (STT) Provider

STT_PROVIDER=deepgram
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=your-api-key
DEEPGRAM_MODEL=nova-2              # nova-2, nova, enhanced
DEEPGRAM_LANGUAGE=en
DEEPGRAM_ENCODING=linear16
DEEPGRAM_SAMPLE_RATE=16000

STT_PROVIDER=google
GOOGLE_CLOUD_STT_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/credentials.json
GOOGLE_CLOUD_STT_LANGUAGE=en-US

STT_PROVIDER=ai4bharat
STT_SERVICE_URL=http://ai4bharat_stt_server:8001
STT_LANGUAGE=hi                    # Language code
STT_SAMPLE_RATE=16000

Text-to-Speech (TTS) Provider

TTS_PROVIDER=cartesia
CARTESIA_API_KEY=your-api-key
CARTESIA_VOICE=english_male
CARTESIA_LANGUAGE=en
CARTESIA_SAMPLE_RATE=16000
CARTESIA_SPEED=1.0

TTS_PROVIDER=google
GOOGLE_CLOUD_TTS_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/credentials.json
GOOGLE_CLOUD_TTS_VOICE_NAME=en-US-Neural2-C
GOOGLE_CLOUD_TTS_LANGUAGE=en-US

TTS_PROVIDER=ai4bharat
TTS_SERVICE_URL=http://ai4bharat_tts_server:8002
TTS_LANGUAGE=hi
TTS_SPEAKER=female
TTS_SAMPLE_RATE=16000
TTS_SPEED=1.0

Backend Integration

# Backend API Connection
BACKEND_API_URL=http://backend:8000    # Docker
# BACKEND_API_URL=http://localhost:8000 # Local dev
BACKEND_API_TIMEOUT=30

# Session Management
SESSION_TIMEOUT_MINUTES=30
MAX_CONCURRENT_CALLS=100
ENABLE_CALL_RECORDING=true
ENABLE_TRANSCRIPT_LOGGING=true

Server Configuration

# Server
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=7860
WORKERS=4

# Audio
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE=16000
AUDIO_CHANNELS=1
AUDIO_FORMAT=pcm
AUDIO_CHUNK_SIZE=2048

Logging & Debugging

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=INFO                   # DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR
LOG_FILE=/var/log/voicera/voice_server.log
DEBUG_MODE=false                 # Enable verbose logging
ENABLE_AUDIO_LOGGING=false       # Log audio streams (CPU intensive!)

Frontend Environment

File: voicera_frontend/.env.local

API Configuration

# Backend API
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_TIMEOUT=30000              # Milliseconds

# Voice Server WebSocket
NEXT_PUBLIC_VOICE_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:7860
NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=ws://localhost:7860
NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_TIMEOUT=30000

Authentication

# Authentication Settings
NEXT_PUBLIC_AUTH_ENABLED=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_JWT_STORAGE_KEY=voicera_token
NEXT_PUBLIC_AUTH_REDIRECT_URL=/dashboard
NEXT_PUBLIC_LOGIN_URL=/login

Application Configuration

# App Info
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME=VoiceERA
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_VERSION=1.0.0
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_ENVIRONMENT=development  # development, staging, production

# Logging
NEXT_PUBLIC_LOG_LEVEL=info                # debug, info, warn, error
NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN=
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEBUG=false

Analytics & Tracking

# Analytics
NEXT_PUBLIC_ANALYTICS_ENABLED=false
NEXT_PUBLIC_GA_TRACKING_ID=              # Google Analytics ID
NEXT_PUBLIC_MIXPANEL_TOKEN=              # Mixpanel token

# Feature Flags
NEXT_PUBLIC_FEATURE_VOICE_CALLS=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_FEATURE_ANALYTICS=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_FEATURE_RECORDINGS=true

UI Configuration

# UI Preferences
NEXT_PUBLIC_THEME=light                  # light, dark, auto
NEXT_PUBLIC_ANIMATIONS_ENABLED=true
NEXT_PUBLIC_RECORDS_PER_PAGE=25

AI4Bharat Services

File: ai4bharat_stt_server/.env

# Server
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8001
WORKERS=4

# Model Configuration
MODEL_NAME=indic-conformer-hi
MODEL_PATH=/models
DEVICE=cuda                    # cuda or cpu
BATCH_SIZE=32

# Audio
SAMPLE_RATE=16000
AUDIO_FORMAT=wav

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=INFO

File: ai4bharat_tts_server/.env

# Server
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8002
WORKERS=2

# Model Configuration
MODEL_NAME=indic-parler-hi
MODEL_PATH=/models
DEVICE=cuda                    # cuda or cpu

# Audio
SAMPLE_RATE=16000
AUDIO_FORMAT=wav
SPEED=1.0

# Caching
ENABLE_CACHING=true
CACHE_SIZE_MB=500
CACHE_TTL_HOURS=24

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=INFO

Security & Secrets

Secret Management Best Practices

# Never commit secrets
echo ".env" >> .gitignore
echo ".env.prod" >> .gitignore
echo "secrets/" >> .gitignore

# Store secrets in environment variables
export MONGODB_PASSWORD=$(aws secretsmanager get-secret-value --secret-id prod/mongodb/password)
export JWT_SECRET_KEY=$(aws secretsmanager get-secret-value --secret-id prod/jwt-secret)

# Or use a secrets management tool
# HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager

Secret Rotation

# Rotate JWT secret
# 1. Generate new secret
NEW_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# 2. Update in environment
JWT_SECRET_KEY=$NEW_SECRET

# 3. Rotate tokens after grace period
# 4. Monitor for authentication failures

Environment by Stage

Development: 

DEBUG=true
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
MONGODB_SECURE=false
MINIO_SECURE=false
JWT_EXPIRATION_HOURS=24

Staging: 

DEBUG=false
LOG_LEVEL=INFO
MONGODB_SECURE=true
MINIO_SECURE=true
JWT_EXPIRATION_HOURS=12

Production: 

DEBUG=false
LOG_LEVEL=WARNING
MONGODB_SECURE=true
MINIO_SECURE=true
JWT_EXPIRATION_HOURS=1
SESSION_TIMEOUT_MINUTES=15

Validation Checklist

  • [ ] All required variables set
  • [ ] No secrets in .env.example
  • [ ] API keys rotated regularly
  • [ ] Passwords meet security requirements (16+ chars, mixed case, numbers, symbols)
  • [ ] URLs use HTTPS in production
  • [ ] Timeout values are reasonable
  • [ ] Rate limits are set appropriately
  • [ ] Logging doesn't expose sensitive data

Next Steps