Environment Variables

Environment Variables

All environment variables recognised by clido.

API keys

Variable	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic API key. Used when the active profile has api_key_env = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" or no api_key_env and provider is anthropic.
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible API key. Used when provider is openai and api_key_env is not set.
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	OpenRouter API key. Used when provider is openrouter and api_key_env is not set.

Any custom environment variable name can be set in a profile’s api_key_env field:

[profile.my-provider]
provider    = "openai"
api_key_env = "MY_CUSTOM_KEY"

Config and data paths

Variable	Default	Description
CLIDO_CONFIG	Platform config dir + /config.toml	Override the config file path. Can be absolute or relative.
CLIDO_DATA_DIR	Platform data dir	Override the data directory (sessions, memory DB, audit logs).

Runtime overrides

These variables mirror CLI flags. CLI flags take precedence over environment variables.

Variable	CLI equivalent	Description
CLIDO_MODEL	--model	Model name override
CLIDO_PROVIDER	--provider	Provider override
CLIDO_PROFILE	--profile	Profile name
CLIDO_WORKDIR	--workdir	Working directory
CLIDO_MAX_TURNS	--max-turns	Maximum agent turns
CLIDO_MAX_BUDGET_USD	--max-budget-usd	Maximum cost in USD
CLIDO_PERMISSION_MODE	--permission-mode	Permission mode (default, accept-all, plan)
CLIDO_OUTPUT_FORMAT	--output-format	Output format (text, json, stream-json)
CLIDO_INPUT_FORMAT	--input-format	Input format (text, stream-json)
CLIDO_MAX_PARALLEL_TOOLS	--max-parallel-tools	Max concurrent tool calls
CLIDO_SYSTEM_PROMPT	--system-prompt	System prompt override

Display and UI

Variable	Default	Description
NO_COLOR	unset	When set to any non-empty value, disables ANSI color output. Also respected by --no-color flag. Follows the no-color.org convention.
TERM	—	Used to detect terminal capabilities. clido respects TERM=dumb to disable color.

Logging

Variable	Default	Description
CLIDO_LOG	info	Log filter for tracing. Examples: debug, clido_agent=debug, warn.
RUST_LOG	—	Standard Rust log filter (fallback when CLIDO_LOG is not set).

Examples

Set provider and model for a CI job

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="$SECRET_KEY"
export CLIDO_MAX_TURNS=20
export CLIDO_MAX_BUDGET_USD=0.50
export CLIDO_PERMISSION_MODE=accept-all

clido --output-format json "fix all clippy warnings"

Use a custom config file

CLIDO_CONFIG=./ci/clido.toml clido "run smoke tests"

Enable debug logging

CLIDO_LOG=debug clido "test prompt" 2>debug.log

Disable color in scripts

NO_COLOR=1 clido --output-format json "list files"