> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://syv-labs.gitbook.io/context-pool/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://syv-labs.gitbook.io/context-pool/reference/environment-variables.md).

# Environment Variables

## LLM Backend

The active backend is resolved in this order:

1. **Explicit preference** saved by `cxp install --setup` (stored in keychain + local file)
2. **Environment variables** (`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `NVIDIA_API_KEY`)
3. **Keychain / file cache** from a previous `cxp install --setup` run
4. **Claude Code CLI fallback** — if none of the above, and `claude` is in PATH

The recommended way to configure a backend is `cxp install --setup`, which presents the options as distinct choices with clear trade-offs. See [Claude Code setup](/context-pool/ide-setup/claude-code.md) and [Cursor setup](/context-pool/ide-setup/cursor.md).

**Claude Code** (subscription, via `claude -p`) and **Anthropic API** (direct HTTP, billed per token) are separate options — the former is free but slower; the latter is faster and parallelizes better.

### Backend environment variables

| Variable            | Backend                        |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | Anthropic Messages API         |
| `OPENAI_API_KEY`    | OpenAI chat completions        |
| `NVIDIA_API_KEY`    | NVIDIA NIM (OpenAI-compatible) |

If set, env vars override the saved preference for that process.

Reset a saved NVIDIA key:

```bash
cxp --reset-nvidia-api-key
```

Reset Anthropic or OpenAI keys:

```bash
cxp install --setup    # re-run the wizard and pick a new backend
```

***

## Team Sync

| Variable      | Default                                        | Description                                                           |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `CXP_API_KEY` | —                                              | Team API key. Alternative to `cxp auth` — useful in CI or containers. |
| `CXP_API_URL` | `https://contextpool-server-nj1f.onrender.com` | Override the API endpoint. Use for self-hosted servers or local dev.  |

***

## Performance Tuning

| Variable          | Default | Description                                                                                                                                   |
| ----------------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `CXP_CONCURRENCY` | `8`     | Max concurrent LLM calls during `fetch_project_context` and `cxp init`. Increase for faster bulk processing; decrease if you hit rate limits. |
| `CXP_MAX_CHARS`   | `20000` | Transcript characters sent to the LLM per session. Lowering this (e.g. `8000`) speeds up each call significantly with minimal quality loss.   |

Example — tune for speed on a large project:

```bash
CXP_CONCURRENCY=12 CXP_MAX_CHARS=8000 cxp init claude-code --local
```

***

## LLM Tuning

| Variable                | Default              | Description                                                    |
| ----------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `MODEL`                 | per-backend default¹ | Override the model used for summarization.                     |
| `REPAIR_MODEL`          | same as `MODEL`      | Model used for JSON repair if the first response is malformed. |
| `TEMPERATURE`           | `0.0`                | Sampling temperature.                                          |
| `TOP_P`                 | `0.95`               | Top-p nucleus sampling.                                        |
| `MAX_COMPLETION_TOKENS` | `4096`               | Max tokens per LLM response.                                   |

¹ Default models:

* Claude Code CLI / Anthropic: `claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`
* OpenAI: `gpt-4o-mini`
* NVIDIA NIM: `qwen/qwen3.5-122b-a10b`

***

## Extraction Behavior

| Variable                    | Default | Description                                                                                                               |
| --------------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `SANITIZE_CHAT`             | `1`     | Strip tool calls, thinking blocks, file snapshots, and injected context before sending to the LLM. Set to `0` to disable. |
| `EXTRACT_USER_QUERIES_ONLY` | `0`     | Send only user messages to the LLM, not assistant replies. Set to `1` to enable.                                          |

***

## Debugging

| Variable           | Default | Description                                                                                                           |
| ------------------ | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `DEBUG_LLM_OUTPUT` | `0`     | Print the raw LLM response to stderr before parsing. Set to `1` to enable. Useful for diagnosing extraction failures. |

***

## In MCP Config (Cursor)

If you prefer not to use the keychain, pass env vars directly in `~/.cursor/mcp.json`. This is also useful in headless or container environments:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextpool": {
      "command": "cxp",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-...",
        "CXP_API_KEY": "cxp_team_...",
        "CXP_CONCURRENCY": "10"
      }
    }
  }
}
```


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