Environment Variables

Jawcode reads environment variables at startup to configure providers, directory layout, model selection, and tool behavior. Variables prefixed JWC_ are the canonical names; legacy GJC_ and PI_ aliases are accepted for backward compatibility but should not be used in new setups.

Core Provider Keys

At least one provider key is required. Jawcode auto-discovers which providers are available based on which keys are set.

Variable	Description	Default
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Anthropic Claude models (Sonnet, Opus, Haiku).	none
`ANTHROPIC_OAUTH_TOKEN`	Anthropic OAuth token. Takes precedence over `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`.	none
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI GPT / o-series models.	none
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	Google Gemini models.	none
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	GitHub Copilot models. Also accepted: `GH_TOKEN`, `COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN`.	none

Additional LLM Providers

Variable	Provider
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	Azure OpenAI
`GROQ_API_KEY`	Groq
`CEREBRAS_API_KEY`	Cerebras
`XAI_API_KEY`	xAI Grok
`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	OpenRouter (aggregated)
`KILO_API_KEY`	Kilo Gateway
`MISTRAL_API_KEY`	Mistral
`ZAI_API_KEY`	z.ai / ZhipuAI (GLM)
`MINIMAX_API_KEY`	MiniMax
`OPENCODE_API_KEY`	OpenCode Zen / Go
`CURSOR_ACCESS_TOKEN`	Cursor AI
`AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY`	Vercel AI Gateway

Cloud Providers

Variable	Description	Default
`AWS_PROFILE`	AWS Bedrock. Also accepts `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` + `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`.	none
`GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT`	Google Vertex AI project ID. Requires `GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION`.	none
`GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`	Service account JSON path for Vertex AI.	none

Anthropic Foundry / mTLS

Variable	Description
`CLAUDE_CODE_USE_FOUNDRY`	Enable Anthropic Foundry mode (Foundry endpoint + mTLS).
`FOUNDRY_BASE_URL`	Foundry base URL, e.g. `https://<foundry-host>`.
`ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_API_KEY`	Bearer token for Foundry mode.
`ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS`	Extra Foundry headers, e.g. `"user-id: USERNAME"`.
`CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_CERT`	Client certificate PEM path or inline PEM for mTLS.
`CLAUDE_CODE_CLIENT_KEY`	Client private key PEM path or inline PEM for mTLS.
`NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS`	CA bundle path (or inline PEM) for server certificate validation.

Search and Tool Providers

Variable	Description
`EXA_API_KEY`	Exa web search
`BRAVE_API_KEY`	Brave web search
`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`	Perplexity web search (API key)
`PERPLEXITY_COOKIES`	Perplexity web search (session cookie)
`TAVILY_API_KEY`	Tavily web search
`ANTHROPIC_SEARCH_API_KEY`	Anthropic search provider
`SEARXNG_ENDPOINT`	Self-hosted SearXNG instance URL
`SEARXNG_TOKEN`	SearXNG bearer auth token
`SEARXNG_BASIC_USERNAME`	SearXNG HTTP Basic auth username
`SEARXNG_BASIC_PASSWORD`	SearXNG HTTP Basic auth password
`SMITHERY_API_KEY`	Smithery MCP marketplace API key

Directory and Session Layout

Jawcode stores configuration, sessions, and caches under ~/.jwc/ by default. On Linux, XDG base directories are honored when set.

Variable	Description	Default
`JWC_CONFIG_DIR`	Config directory name relative to home. Legacy aliases: `GJC_CONFIG_DIR`, `PI_CONFIG_DIR`.	`.jwc`
`JWC_CODING_AGENT_DIR`	Full path to agent session storage. Legacy: `GJC_CODING_AGENT_DIR`.	`~/.jwc/agent`
`JWC_SESSION_ID`	Override the auto-generated session ID. Legacy: `GJC_SESSION_ID`.	auto-generated
`JWC_PACKAGE_VERSION`	Override the version string shown by the CLI.	from `package.json`
`JWC_PACKAGE_DIR`	Override package directory. Useful for Nix/Guix store paths.	auto-detected

XDG Base Directories (Linux)

When running on Linux, Jawcode maps its storage to XDG locations:

Variable	Maps to	Default
`XDG_DATA_HOME`	Sessions, blobs, worktrees, stats	`~/.local/share`
`XDG_STATE_HOME`	Logs, crash logs, terminal sessions	`~/.local/state`
`XDG_CACHE_HOME`	Natives, GPU cache, Puppeteer data	`~/.cache`

Model Selection Overrides

Variable	Description	CLI equivalent
`JWC_SMOL_MODEL`	Override the fast/small model for lightweight tasks.	`--smol`
`JWC_SLOW_MODEL`	Override the slow/reasoning model for deep analysis.	`--slow`
`JWC_PLAN_MODEL`	Override the planning model for orchestration.	`--plan`

Behavior Flags

Variable	Description	Default
`JWC_BRAND_NAME`	Override display name shown in the TUI. Legacy: `GJC_BRAND_NAME`.	`jwc`
`JWC_NO_PTY`	Disable PTY-based interactive bash execution.	unset (PTY enabled)
`JWC_COMMIT_LANE`	Enable or disable the commit lane. Set to `0` or `false` to disable.	`true`
`JWC_LAUNCH_POLICY`	Launch policy for `--tmux` startup: `tmux` or `direct`.	`tmux`
`JWC_TMUX_SESSION`	Explicit tmux session name for `--tmux` startup.	auto-generated

Browser / Puppeteer

Variable	Description
`PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH`	Path to a Chrome/Chromium binary. Auto-detected if unset.
`PUPPETEER_PROXY`	HTTP proxy for browser traffic, e.g. `http://127.0.0.1:8080`.
`PUPPETEER_PROXY_BYPASS_LOOPBACK`	Set to `true` to route localhost traffic through the proxy.
`PUPPETEER_PROXY_IGNORE_CERT_ERRORS`	Set to `true` to ignore certificate errors (insecure).

GitHub Integration

Variable	Description
`GH_TOKEN` / `GITHUB_TOKEN`	Personal access token for GitHub API, PR creation, issue reads.
`GH_HOST`	GitHub Enterprise host, e.g. `github.mycompany.com`. Default: `github.com`.
`GH_CONFIG_DIR`	Override the `gh` CLI config directory for auth token discovery.

Example Setup

# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."

# Optional: point config to a custom location
export JWC_CONFIG_DIR=".my-jwc"

# Optional: override model selection
export JWC_SMOL_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
export JWC_SLOW_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514:high"

# Optional: self-hosted search
export SEARXNG_ENDPOINT="http://localhost:8888"

Run jwc --list-models to verify which providers are active after setting your keys.