Environment Variables

Authored by briiian · Last updated August 17, 2026

self-hosted

These environment variables can be set in your docker-compose.yaml file. All variables are optional.

Name	Type	Default	Description
`MUSIC_DIR`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path to your music.
`PHOTOS_DIR`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path to your photos.
`MOVIES_DIR`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path to your movies.
`TV_DIR`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path to your TV shows.
`HTTP_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`0`	Set the log level¹ for HTTP requests.
`EVENTS_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`0`	Set the log level¹ for the internal event system.
`INDEXING_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`10`	Set the log level¹ for the indexing system.
`JOBS_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`10`	Set the log level¹ for the jobs system.
`TRANSCODER_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`0`	Set the log level¹ for the transcoding system.
`DATABASE_LOG_LEVEL`	number	`0`	Set the log level¹ for database queries.
`MAX_CONCURRENT_JOBS`	number	`3`	Max number of jobs that are allowed to run at the same time.
`SQLITE_PATH`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path for where the server should store the SQLite database. Set to `:memory:` to use an in-memory database. When omitted, the server will automatically choose a location based on the operating system. If you change this after the server has already created a database, then you will need to copy the database to the new location manually.
`SQLITE_WAL`	boolean	`false`	Enable Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) for SQLite. This is a significant performance optimization that allows for concurrent read/writes, but it cannot be enabled if your database is being used over a network connection (NFS, SMB, etc). Changing this requires a server restart.
`CARDINAL_POSTGRES`	boolean	`false`	Use PostgreSQL instead of the default SQLite.
`POSTGRES_HOST`	string	`undefined`	PostgreSQL host name. When omitted, the server connects to the database service from the Quick Start examples (`cardinal-media-server-<channel>-postgres-db`), or `127.0.0.1` when running outside a container.
`POSTGRES_PORT`	number	`5432`	PostgreSQL port number.
`POSTGRES_USER`	string	`cardinal`	The PostgreSQL user.
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	string	`cardinal`	The PostgreSQL user password.
`POSTGRES_DATABASE`	string	—	PostgreSQL database name. Uses your Postgres user name if omitted.
`POSTGRES_SSL`	boolean	`false`	Enable SSL for the PostgreSQL connection.
`SECURE_COOKIES`	boolean	`false`	Allow the Media Server to issue cookies with stricter security settings. See Media Server → Accounts for more information on how sessions work.
`SIGNING_SECRET`	string	`undefined`	Secret used to sign authentication tokens. Changing this will revoke all sessions. One is generated automatically if none is provided.
`RESET_LOCAL_USER_PW`	string	`undefined`	Set this to the username of a local user to reset their password on the next startup. Their new password will be printed in the console.
`INDEXING_SCAN_TIMEOUT`	number	`120`	Number of seconds the scanner will wait for the file system to respond.
`INDEXING_SCAN_VERIFY_PASSES`	number	`4`	Maximum number of verification passes the music scanner will make over the file system to confirm that the initial scan did not miss any files. Verification ends early once a pass finds nothing new. Mostly useful for unreliable file systems, like network shares.
`HEIF_CONVERSION_TIMEOUT`	number	`60`	Number of seconds before we assume that the conversion failed.
`FFMPEG_PATH`	string	`undefined`	Absolute path to an ffmpeg binary to use for audio transcoding. When omitted, the bundled ffmpeg build is used. Set this to point at a custom build of ffmpeg.
`CONNECT_LAN_IPS`	string	`undefined`	Optional. Addresses this machine has on your own network, which Remote Access advertises as local connection routes for this server. Cardinal apps that look the server up through Cardinal's cloud try local routes first, then fall back to the public ones — a direct connection through your router, or the relay. Separate several addresses with commas. A server inside a Docker bridge network (the Quick Start default) cannot discover its machine's addresses, so without this it advertises no local routes. This setting has no effect on the server's `connect.cardinalapps.host` address, which always points at your public address, and none on reaching the server by IP on your own network.

¹ Available log levels are:

20 - Debug
10 - Info
0 - Silent

Higher numbers include logs from lower numbers. Setting 0 does not disable error logging.

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