Environment Variables

Tide Commander is configured via environment variables. Create a .env file at the repo root (copy .env.example as a starting point) or export variables in your shell before running tide-commander start.

Server variables

Variable	Default	Description
`PORT`	`5174`	Backend HTTP/WebSocket server port
`HOST`	`127.0.0.1`	Backend bind address. `127.0.0.1` means localhost-only.
`VITE_PORT`	`5173`	Vite dev server port (development mode only)
`TIDE_SERVER`	`http://localhost:$PORT`	Server URL used by agent hooks for internal API calls
`LISTEN_ALL_INTERFACES`	(unset)	Set to `1` to bind on `0.0.0.0` — makes Tide Commander reachable on your LAN

Authentication

Variable	Default	Description
`AUTH_TOKEN`	(unset)	Static token required in the `X-Auth-Token` header for all HTTP and WebSocket connections. Generate a strong random value: `openssl rand -hex 32`

When AUTH_TOKEN is set, every API request and WebSocket upgrade must include the header:

curl -H "X-Auth-Token: YOUR_TOKEN" http://localhost:5174/api/agents

HTTPS / TLS

Variable	Default	Description
`HTTPS`	(unset)	Set to `1` to serve the backend over HTTPS and WSS
`TLS_KEY_PATH`	`~/.tide-commander/certs/localhost-key.pem`	Private key for the backend TLS certificate
`TLS_CERT_PATH`	`~/.tide-commander/certs/localhost.pem`	Certificate for the backend TLS
`DEV_HTTPS`	(unset)	Set to `1` to run the Vite dev server over HTTPS
`DEV_TLS_KEY_PATH`	(unset)	Private key for the Vite dev HTTPS server
`DEV_TLS_CERT_PATH`	(unset)	Certificate for the Vite dev HTTPS server

See HTTPS & Auth for step-by-step setup using mkcert or your own CA.

Using a `.env` file

Create .env at the project root:

PORT=5174
HOST=0.0.0.0
LISTEN_ALL_INTERFACES=1
AUTH_TOKEN=your-secret-token-here
HTTPS=1
TLS_KEY_PATH=~/.tide-commander/certs/localhost-key.pem
TLS_CERT_PATH=~/.tide-commander/certs/localhost.pem

Tide Commander loads this file automatically on startup. When running via bunx, pass variables inline:

PORT=8080 AUTH_TOKEN=mytoken bunx tide-commander

Or export them first:

export PORT=8080
export AUTH_TOKEN=mytoken
tide-commander start

CLI flags vs environment variables

Most environment variables have equivalent CLI flags for one-off usage without a .env file:

tide-commander --port 8080 --host 0.0.0.0
tide-commander --listen-all --port 8080
tide-commander --https --tls-key ./certs/key.pem --tls-cert ./certs/cert.pem
tide-commander --auth-token mytoken
tide-commander --generate-auth-token   # prints a new token and exits

CLI flags take precedence over environment variables when both are set.