Environment Variables

Coyote is designed to be highly dynamic and customizable. As a result, Coyote utilizes a number of environment variables that can be used to modify its behavior at runtime without needing to modify the existing configuration files.

Coyote also supports defining environment variables via a .env file in the Coyote configuration directory. This directory varies between systems, so you can find the location of your configuration directory using the following command:

coyote --info | grep 'config_dir' | awk '{print $2}'

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Global Configuration Related Variables

All configuration items in the global config file have environment variables that can be overridden at runtime. To see all configuration options and more thorough descriptions, refer to the example config file.

Below are the most commonly used configuration settings and their corresponding environment variables:

Setting	Environment Variable
model	COYOTE_MODEL
temperature	COYOTE_TEMPERATURE
top_p	COYOTE_TOP_P
stream	COYOTE_STREAM
save	COYOTE_SAVE
editor	COYOTE_EDITOR
wrap	COYOTE_WRAP
wrap_code	COYOTE_WRAP_CODE
save_session	COYOTE_SAVE_SESSION
compression_threshold	COYOTE_COMPRESSION_THRESHOLD
function_calling_support	COYOTE_FUNCTION_CALLING_SUPPORT
enabled_tools	COYOTE_ENABLED_TOOLS
mcp_server_support	COYOTE_MCP_SERVER_SUPPORT
enabled_mcp_servers	COYOTE_ENABLED_MCP_SERVERS
rag_embedding_model	COYOTE_RAG_EMBEDDING_MODEL
rag_reranker_model	COYOTE_RAG_RERANKER_MODEL
rag_top_k	COYOTE_RAG_TOP_K
rag_chunk_size	COYOTE_RAG_CHUNK_SIZE
rag_chunk_overlap	COYOTE_RAG_CHUNK_OVERLAP
highlight	COYOTE_HIGHLIGHT
theme	COYOTE_THEME
serve_addr	COYOTE_SERVE_ADDR
user_agent	COYOTE_USER_AGENT
save_shell_history	COYOTE_SAVE_SHELL_HISTORY
sync_models_url	COYOTE_SYNC_MODELS_URL

Client Related Variables

The following environment variables are available for clients in Coyote:

Environment Variable	Description
{client}_API_KEY	For clients that require an API key, you can define the keys either through environment variables or using the vault. The variables are named after the client to which they apply; e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, etc.
COYOTE_PLATFORM	Combine with {client}_API_KEY to run Coyote without a configuration file. This variable is ignored if a configuration file exists.
COYOTE_PATCH_{client}_CHAT_COMPLETIONS	Patch chat completion requests to models on the corresponding client; Can modify the URL, body, or headers.
COYOTE_SHELL	Specify the shell that Coyote should be using when executing commands

Files and Directory Related Variables

You can also customize the files and directories that Coyote loads its configuration files from:

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
COYOTE_CONFIG_DIR	Customize the location of the Coyote configuration directory.	<user-config-dir>/coyote
COYOTE_CACHE_DIR	Customize the location of the Coyote cache directory. Used for the log file, OAuth tokens, the embedded sbx kit cache, and the embedded sbx vault-provider mixin cache.	<user-cache-dir>/coyote
COYOTE_ENV_FILE	Customize the location of the .env file to load at startup.	<coyote-config-dir>/.env
COYOTE_CONFIG_FILE	Customize the location of the global config.yaml configuration file.	<coyote-config-dir>/config.yaml
COYOTE_ROLES_DIR	Customize the location of the roles directory.	<coyote-config-dir>/roles
COYOTE_SESSIONS_DIR	Customize the location of the sessions directory.	<coyote-config-dir>/sessions
COYOTE_RAGS_DIR	Customize the location of the rags directory.	<coyote-config-dir>/rags
COYOTE_FUNCTIONS_DIR	Customize the location of the functions directory.	<coyote-config-dir>/functions

Agent Related Variables

You can also customize the location of full agent configurations using the following environment variables:

Environment Variable	Description
<AGENT_NAME>_CONFIG_FILE	Customize the location of the agent's configuration file; e.g. SQL_CONFIG_FILE
<AGENT_NAME>_MODEL	Customize the model used for the agent; e.g SQL_MODEL
<AGENT_NAME>_TEMPERATURE	Customize the temperature used for the agent; e.g. SQL_TEMPERATURE
<AGENT_NAME>_TOP_P	Customize the top_p used for the agent; e.g. SQL_TOP_P
<AGENT_NAME>_GLOBAL_TOOLS	Customize the global_tools that are enabled for the agent (a JSON string array); e.g. SQL_GLOBAL_TOOLS
<AGENT_NAME>_MCP_SERVERS	Customize the mcp_servers that are enabled for the agent (a JSON string array); e.g. SQL_MCP_SERVERS
<AGENT_NAME>_AGENT_SESSION	Customize the agent_session used with the agent; e.g. SQL_SESSION
<AGENT_NAME>_INSTRUCTIONS	Customize the instructions for the agent; e.g. SQL_INSTRUCTIONS
<AGENT_NAME>_VARIABLES	Customize the variables used for the agent (in JSON format of [{"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}]); e.g. SQL_VARIABLES

Sandbox Related Variables

The following variable controls Coyote's Sandbox mode:

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
COYOTE_SANDBOX_KIT	Override the path to the sbx kit used by coyote --sandbox. When set, Coyote skips extracting its embedded kit and passes this directory to sbx create --kit instead. Use for kit development, hardening, or pointing at a fork of the embedded kit.	coyote --info | grep sbx_kit_dir | awk '{print $2}' (extracted)

Notes:

• If COYOTE_SANDBOX_KIT points to a non-existent path, coyote --sandbox aborts with an error before any sandbox is created.
• The path is passed verbatim to sbx create --kit; it must be a valid sbx kit (containing spec.yaml), not just any directory.
• No environment variables map to the sandbox-mode CLI flags (--fresh, --no-mixins). These are intentionally CLI-only. They're one-time per-invocation decisions, not configuration knobs.

Logging Related Variables

The following variables can be used to change the log level of Coyote or the location of the log file:

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
COYOTE_LOG_LEVEL	Customize the log level of Coyote	INFO
COYOTE_LOG_FILE	Customize the location of the Coyote log file	<user-cache-dir>/coyote/coyote.log

Pro-Tip: You can always tail the Coyote logs using the --tail-logs flag. If you need to disable color output, you can also pass the --disable-log-colors flag as well.

Miscellaneous Variables

Environment Variable	Description	Default Value
AUTO_CONFIRM	Bypass all guard_* checks in the bash prompt helpers; useful for agent composition and routing
LLM_TOOL_DATA_FILE	Set automatically by Coyote on Windows. Points to a temporary file containing the JSON tool call data. Tool scripts (run-tool.sh, run-agent.sh, etc.) read from this file instead of command-line args to avoid JSON escaping issues when data passes through cmd.exe → bash. Not intended to be set by users.