Configuration Reference¶

Environment Variables and .env Files¶

Flock automatically loads environment variables from .env files in the current directory when the package is imported. This provides a convenient way to manage configuration without manually setting environment variables.

Automatic .env Loading¶

When you import Flock, it will automatically: 1. Look for a .env file in the current working directory 2. Load all environment variables from that file 3. Make them available via os.getenv() throughout the application

# This will automatically load .env file if it exists
from flock import Flock

flock = Flock()  # Will use DEFAULT_MODEL from .env if available

Creating a .env File¶

Create a .env file in your project root:

# API Keys
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here
AZURE_API_KEY=your_azure_api_key_here
AZURE_API_BASE=https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/

# Model Configuration
DEFAULT_MODEL=openai/gpt-4.1

# Tracing Configuration
FLOCK_AUTO_TRACE=true
FLOCK_TRACE_FILE=true
FLOCK_TRACE_SERVICES=["flock", "agent", "dspyengine"]

Available Environment Variables¶

See the .envtemplate file for a complete list of all available configuration options.

Manual Environment Variable Loading¶

If you need to load environment variables from a custom location:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv('/path/to/your/.env')  # Load from custom path

from flock import Flock

Priority Order¶

Environment variables are resolved in this order: 1. System environment variables (highest priority) 2. .env file variables 3. Default values in the code (lowest priority)

Configuration Options¶

For detailed configuration options, see: - Installation Guide for environment setup - .envtemplate for all available options - Tracing Configuration for telemetry settings