BMAD-METHOD/V2-FULL-DEMO-WALKTHROUGH/environment-vars.md

BMad Hacker Daily Digest Environment Variables

Configuration Loading Mechanism

Environment variables for this project are managed using a standard .env file in the project root. The application leverages the native support for .env files built into Node.js (v20.6.0 and later) , meaning no external dotenv package is required.

Variables defined in the .env file are automatically loaded into process.env when the Node.js application starts. Accessing and potentially validating these variables should be centralized, ideally within the src/utils/config.ts module .

Required Variables

The following table lists the environment variables used by the application. An .env.example file should be maintained in the repository with these variables set to placeholder or default values .

Variable Name	Description	Example / Default Value	Required?	Sensitive?	Source
OUTPUT_DIR_PATH	Filesystem path for storing output data artifacts	./output	Yes	No	Epic 1
MAX_COMMENTS_PER_STORY	Maximum number of comments to fetch per HN story	50	Yes	No	PRD
OLLAMA_ENDPOINT_URL	Base URL for the local Ollama API instance	http://localhost:11434	Yes	No	Epic 4
OLLAMA_MODEL	Name of the Ollama model to use for summarization	llama3	Yes	No	Epic 4
EMAIL_HOST	SMTP server hostname for sending email	smtp.example.com	Yes	No	Epic 5
EMAIL_PORT	SMTP server port	587	Yes	No	Epic 5
EMAIL_SECURE	Use TLS/SSL (true for port 465, false for 587/STARTTLS)	false	Yes	No	Epic 5
EMAIL_USER	Username for SMTP authentication	user@example.com	Yes	Yes	Epic 5
EMAIL_PASS	Password for SMTP authentication	your_smtp_password	Yes	Yes	Epic 5
EMAIL_FROM	Sender email address (may need specific format)	"BMad Digest <digest@example.com>"	Yes	No	Epic 5
EMAIL_RECIPIENTS	Comma-separated list of recipient email addresses	recipient1@example.com,r2@test.org	Yes	No	Epic 5
NODE_ENV	Runtime environment (influences some library behavior)	development	No	No	Standard Node
SCRAPE_TIMEOUT_MS	Optional: Timeout in milliseconds for article scraping requests	15000 (15s)	No	No	Good Practice
OLLAMA_TIMEOUT_MS	Optional: Timeout in milliseconds for Ollama API requests	120000 (2min)	No	No	Good Practice
LOG_LEVEL	Optional: Control log verbosity (e.g., debug, info)	info	No	No	Good Practice
MAX_COMMENT_CHARS_FOR_SUMMARY	Optional: Max chars of combined comments sent to LLM	10000 / null (uses all if not set)	No	No	Arch Decision
SCRAPER_USER_AGENT	Optional: Custom User-Agent header for scraping requests	"BMadHackerDigest/0.1" (Default in code)	No	No	Arch Decision

Notes

• Secrets Management: Sensitive variables (EMAIL_USER, EMAIL_PASS) must never be committed to version control. The .env file should be included in .gitignore (as per boilerplate ).
• .env.example: Maintain an .env.example file in the repository mirroring the variables above, using placeholders or default values for documentation and local setup .
• Validation: It is recommended to implement validation logic in src/utils/config.ts to ensure required variables are present and potentially check their format on application startup .

Change Log

Change	Date	Version	Description	Author
Initial draft	2025-05-04	0.1	Draft based on PRD/Epics requirements	3-Architect