Environment Variables

TuskBot reads configuration from environment variables.

In normal usage, these values are stored in <TUSK_RUNTIME_PATH>/.env and loaded on startup.

Core Runtime

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TUSK_RUNTIME_PATH	No	~/.tuskbot	Runtime data directory.
TUSK_CHAT_CHANNEL	Yes	-	Active transport (currently telegram).
TUSK_CONTEXT_WINDOW_SIZE	No	30	Number of recent messages in short-term context.
TUSK_DEBUG	No	0	Set 1 to enable debug logging.

Model and Embeddings

Variable	Required	Description
TUSK_MAIN_MODEL	Yes	Main model in provider/model format.
TUSK_EMBEDDING_MODEL	Yes	Embedding model filename inside models/.

Provider Credentials

Set credentials for the provider used by TUSK_MAIN_MODEL.

Variable	Description
TUSK_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic API key
TUSK_OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key
TUSK_OPENROUTER_API_KEY	OpenRouter API key
TUSK_OLLAMA_BASE_URL	Ollama base URL (default http://127.0.0.1:11434)
TUSK_OLLAMA_API_KEY	Optional Ollama API key
TUSK_CUSTOM_OPENAI_BASE_URL	OpenAI-compatible base URL
TUSK_CUSTOM_OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible API key

Telegram

Variable	Required	Description
TUSK_TELEGRAM_TOKEN	Yes	Telegram bot token from @BotFather
TUSK_TELEGRAM_OWNER_ID	Yes	Telegram user ID allowed to use the bot

Service Mode

These variables affect tusk service ... commands.

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TUSK_SERVICE_NAME	No	tuskbot	Service name/unit label
TUSK_SERVICE_DISPLAY_NAME	No	TuskBot	Human-readable service name
TUSK_SERVICE_DESCRIPTION	No	TuskBot background agent service	Service description
TUSK_SERVICE_USER_MODE	No	true	Install service for current user by default
TUSK_SERVICE_LOG_DIRECTORY	No	<TUSK_RUNTIME_PATH>/logs	Service stdout/stderr log directory
TUSK_SERVICE_PATH	No	auto-built	PATH used by service processes

Notes

• tusk install writes .env with file mode 0600.
• Changing model via /model persists TUSK_MAIN_MODEL back to .env.