Configuration

All configuration is environment variables, set in the env block of your MCP client entry (Client-Setup). There is no .env file and no command-line flag. Every value is read once at startup — restart the server for a change to take effect.

There is no server-side default for the environment URL. dataverse_url is a required argument on every tool except dataverse_list_environments.

All variables

Variable	Accepted values	Default	Effect
DATAVERSE_AUTH_TYPE	interactive, azure_cli	interactive	Credential type. Any other value aborts startup. See Authentication.
DATAVERSE_ALLOW_WRITE	true	off	Registers create/update/associate/merge/publish and schema-mutation tools. Also lets dataverse_execute_batch accept POST/PUT/PATCH.
DATAVERSE_ALLOW_DELETE	true	off	Registers delete and disassociate tools. Also lets dataverse_execute_batch accept DELETE.
DATAVERSE_TOOLS	Comma-separated category tokens	(all)	Registers only the listed categories. core is always added. Unknown tokens are logged and ignored. See Tool-Categories.
DATAVERSE_WHITELIST	Comma-separated hostnames	(empty)	Rejects any dataverse_url whose host is not listed. Empty means every environment is allowed. See Safety-and-Permissions.
DATAVERSE_REQUIRE_WHITELIST	true, false	false	true rejects every tool call while DATAVERSE_WHITELIST is empty, so a token is never minted for an unapproved host.
DATAVERSE_FILE_BASE_DIR	Directory path	(unset)	Confines the output_path / input_path arguments on the solution export/import tools to this directory. Unset means unrestricted.
DATAVERSE_AUTH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	Positive number	30	Seconds to wait for a credential before failing the call with an auth error.
DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_PERSIST	true, false	true	Persists the interactive MSAL token cache to disk so restarts do not re-prompt. No effect on azure_cli.
DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_ALLOW_UNENCRYPTED	true, false	false	Permits an unencrypted on-disk token cache. Security trade-off — see Authentication.
DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE	[A-Za-z0-9_-]	(empty)	Isolates the token cache and its AuthenticationRecord sidecar per profile, for concurrent sign-ins to different tenants/accounts.

The server also reads standard OS variables: LOCALAPPDATA (Windows) or XDG_CONFIG_HOME for the token-cache sidecar directory, and PATH to locate az under azure_cli auth.

How invalid values behave

Not uniform — worth knowing which typos are loud and which are silent.

Variable	On an unrecognised value
DATAVERSE_ALLOW_WRITE, DATAVERSE_ALLOW_DELETE	Silently treated as off. Only the exact string true (any case) enables them; 1, yes, True with a stray space all mean off.
DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_PERSIST, DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_ALLOW_UNENCRYPTED, DATAVERSE_REQUIRE_WHITELIST	Warning logged, default used
DATAVERSE_AUTH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	Warning logged, 30 used (also when zero or negative)
DATAVERSE_TOOLS	Warning naming the unknown token, token ignored, the rest applied
DATAVERSE_WHITELIST	Warning naming the entry, entry skipped, the rest applied
DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_PROFILE	Startup fails. Sanitising could collapse two profiles onto one cache, so it refuses instead.
DATAVERSE_AUTH_TYPE	Startup fails with the supported values listed

Warnings go to stderr, where your client shows them as server output.

Timeouts

DATAVERSE_AUTH_TIMEOUT_SECONDS covers credential acquisition only — the wait for a browser sign-in or an az token fetch. Raise it to 120 or more when interactive MFA regularly outruns the default 30 seconds.

It does not cover HTTP requests to Dataverse. Those use fixed timeouts — 10 s connect, 60 s read/write — with $batch requests allowed 120 s. None of them are configurable.

Token cache

DATAVERSE_TOKEN_CACHE_PERSIST, _PROFILE and _ALLOW_UNENCRYPTED apply to interactive auth only and are covered in full under Authentication — what is cached, where it is written, and why the unencrypted flag is a trade-off rather than a convenience.

See also

• Safety-and-Permissions — the write/delete gates, host whitelist and file-path confinement.
• Tool-Categories — the DATAVERSE_TOOLS tokens and ready-made presets.