Environment Variables¶

kedge reads the following environment variables. None are required for basic local usage.

API keys¶

Variable	When required	Description
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	`provider = "anthropic"`	API key for Anthropic triage calls. Override the env var name with `api_key_env` in config.
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	`provider = "openai"`	API key for OpenAI-compatible triage calls. Override the env var name with `api_key_env` in config.

Custom key env var¶

If your API key is stored in a differently-named variable:

[triage]
provider = "anthropic"
api_key_env = "MY_CUSTOM_ANTHROPIC_KEY"

kedge reads MY_CUSTOM_ANTHROPIC_KEY instead of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

Repository overrides¶

Variable	Default	Description
`KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL`	(auto-detected)	Override the code repo URL used to match anchors. Rarely needed; see below.
`KEDGE_DOCS_PATH`	(clone from config)	Local path to the docs directory. When set, kedge skips cloning from `[[repos.docs]]` and reads steering files from this path instead.

`KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL`¶

kedge uses this to match steering file anchors to the current repository. An anchor is only processed if its repo field matches this URL.

kedge resolves the code repo URL in this order:

KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL environment variable (if set)
git remote get-url origin (auto-detected from the repo)
file://<cwd> (last resort fallback)

origin typically points to the same HTTPS or SSH URL used in anchor repo fields, so kedge matches anchors without configuration on developer machines. Set KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL when:

CI pipelines — CI runners often set origin to a URL that doesn't match your anchors (e.g., actions/checkout uses https://github.com/org/repo without .git, GitLab runners prepend gitlab-ci-token@)
The repo has no origin remote
origin uses a different protocol than your anchors (e.g., you cloned via SSH but anchors use HTTPS)

# Example: CI override when needed
# GitLab CI
variables:
  KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL: $CI_PROJECT_URL

# GitHub Actions
env:
  KEDGE_CODE_REPO_URL: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}

`KEDGE_DOCS_PATH`¶

kedge reads steering files from this local path instead of cloning from [[repos.docs]]. Local changes (including kedge link stamps) are visible to kedge check immediately.

Use this when:

Monorepos — docs and code live in the same repository. [[repos.docs]] reads from a remote-fetched cache and won't see local changes.
Local development — you want to test against local doc edits without pushing first.
Pre-cloned CI — the docs repo is already checked out in your pipeline.

KEDGE_DOCS_PATH=./docs/steering kedge check

CI detection¶

kedge detects CI environments by checking for these variables (existence, not value):

Variable	Environment
`CI`	Generic CI
`GITHUB_ACTIONS`	GitHub Actions
`GITLAB_CI`	GitLab CI

When any of these is set, kedge install defaults to --workspace mode (copy) instead of --link mode (symlink).

Agent environment¶

Extra variables can be passed to the agent process via agent_env in kedge.toml:

[remediation]
agent_env = {
  GITLAB_TOKEN = "${GITLAB_TOKEN}",
  DOCS_REPO = "git@github.com:your-org/docs.git"
}

Similarly, extra variables for the command triage provider:

[triage]
triage_env = {
  CUSTOM_VAR = "value"
}

kedge passes these to the subprocess environment alongside any inherited variables.