# Environment Variables

| Environment Variable          | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                              | Default                       | Required |
| ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------- | -------- |
| **App Configuration**         |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `DOMAIN`                      | The base URL or domain name where the instance is hosted. Required for link sharing and notifications to work properly.                                                                                                  |                               |
| `STEAMGRIDDB_API_KEY`         | API key for SteamGridDB integration to fetch game metadata and assets.                                                                                                                                                   |                               |
| `MINUTES_BETWEEN_VIDEO_SCANS` | How often (in minutes) the video library is scanned for new or removed files.                                                                                                                                            | `5`                           |
| `ANALYTICS_TRACKING_SCRIPT`   | A full `<script>` tag from an analytics provider (e.g. Umami, Plausible) to inject into the frontend.                                                                                                                    |                               |
| `TZ`                          | Timezone for the container.                                                                                                                                                                                              | `UTC`                         |
| `FS_LOGLEVEL`                 | Log level for the application. Valid values: `DEBUG`, `INFO`, `WARNING`, `ERROR`, `CRITICAL`.                                                                                                                            | `INFO`                        |
| `THUMBNAIL_VIDEO_LOCATION`    | The timestamp (in seconds) used to capture the video thumbnail preview.                                                                                                                                                  | `50`                          |
| **Storage**                   |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `DATA_DIRECTORY`              | Absolute path to the directory where application database and metadata are stored.                                                                                                                                       | `$(pwd)/fireshare/data/`      | Yes      |
| `PROCESSED_DIRECTORY`         | Absolute path to the directory where derived data e.x optimized/transcoded videos, symlinks, posters... are stored.                                                                                                      | `$(pwd)/fireshare/processed/` | Yes      |
| `VIDEO_DIRECTORY`             | Absolute path to the source directory containing raw video files.                                                                                                                                                        | `$(pwd)/path/to/my/videos/`   | Yes      |
| `IMAGE_DIRECTORY`             | Absolute path to the source directory containing raw image files.                                                                                                                                                        | `$(pwd)/path/to/my/images/`   | Yes      |
| **Demo Mode**                 |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `DEMO_MODE`                   | Set to `true` to enable demo mode. Uses known credentials, disables transcoding, blocks destructive actions, and hides sensitive API keys.                                                                               | `false`                       |
| `DEMO_UPLOAD_LIMIT_MB`        | Maximum upload size in MB when `DEMO_MODE` is enabled. Files over the limit are rejected before upload begins. `0` disables the limit.                                                                                   | `0`                           |
| `DEMO_MODE_DELETE_ALL`        | Set to `true` to wipe all data, processed, video, and image directories on container startup. Only takes effect when `DEMO_MODE` is also `true`. Useful for resetting a demo instance to a clean state on every restart. | `false`                       |
| **Security**                  |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `SECRET_KEY`                  | Flask session encryption key. If not set, a random key is generated on each restart, which invalidates all active sessions.                                                                                              | some random string or phrase  |
| `ADMIN_USERNAME`              | The username for the initial administrative account.                                                                                                                                                                     | `admin`                       |
| `ADMIN_PASSWORD`              | The password for the initial administrative account.                                                                                                                                                                     | `admin`                       |
| `DISABLE_ADMINCREATE`         | Set to `true` to prevent automatic admin account creation on first run.                                                                                                                                                  | `false`                       |
| LDAP                          | See [LDAP.md](./LDAP.md) for full LDAP configuration instructions.                                                                                                                                                       |                               |
| **Transcoding**               |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `ENABLE_TRANSCODING`          | Set to `true` to enable video transcoding. See [README](./README.md#transcoding-optional) for details.                                                                                                                   | `false`                       |
| `TRANSCODE_GPU`               | Set to `true` to use NVIDIA GPU (NVENC) for transcoding instead of CPU. Requires an NVIDIA GPU with NVENC support.                                                                                                       | `false`                       |
| `TRANSCODE_TIMEOUT`           | Maximum time in seconds allowed for a single transcoding job before it is cancelled.                                                                                                                                     | `7200`                        |
| **Integrations**              |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL`         | Discord Server/Channel webhook URL used to send a notification on new uploads. [See Docs](./Notifications.md#discord)                                                                                                    |                               |
| `GENERIC_WEBHOOK_URL`         | Endpoint for a generic webhook POST notification. Must be used with `GENERIC_WEBHOOK_PAYLOAD`. [See Docs](./Notifications.md#generic-webhook)                                                                            |                               |
| `GENERIC_WEBHOOK_PAYLOAD`     | JSON payload template POSTed to `GENERIC_WEBHOOK_URL`. [See Docs](./Notifications.md#generic-webhook) for full example and payload options.                                                                              |                               |
| **Container**                 |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `PUID`                        | User ID the container process runs as. Useful for matching host file permissions.                                                                                                                                        | `1000`                        |
| `PGID`                        | Group ID the container process runs as. Useful for matching host file permissions.                                                                                                                                       | `1000`                        |
| **Web Server**                |                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |                               |
| `FIRESHARE_PORT`              | The port the web server (nginx) listens on inside the container. Most users should leave this at `80` and change the host-side `ports` mapping instead; it is primarily useful with `network_mode: host`, where the `ports` mapping is ignored and this value is the port exposed directly on the host. | `80`                          |
| `GUNICORN_WORKERS`            | Number of gunicorn worker processes. On high core-count machines the default formula (`cpu_count × 2 + 1`) can spawn dozens of processes; set this to a fixed value to stay within container PID limits.                 | `min(cpu_count × 2 + 1, 4)`   |
| `GUNICORN_WORKER_CAP`         | Upper bound applied to the auto-calculated worker count. Set to `0` to remove the cap entirely and revert to the original `cpu_count × 2 + 1` behaviour.                                                                | `4`                           |
| `GUNICORN_THREADS`            | Number of threads per worker process.                                                                                                                                                                                    | `8`                           |