Environment variables

gdc reads these environment variables. For the settings that also have a command-line flag, the flag takes priority; the environment variable takes priority over the configuration file.

gdc — model and data

Variable	Equivalent flag	Description
GDC_BASE_URL	--base-url	Model endpoint (OpenAI-compatible).
GDC_MODEL	--model	Model to request.
GDC_API_KEY	--api-key	API key for hosted endpoints. Kept out of help and error output.
GDC_CONFIG	--config	Path to a specific config file.
GDC_DB_PATH	--db-path	Session database location.
GDC_SESSION_ID	--session-id	Use a specific session id.
GDC_SERVE_BIND	gdc serve --bind	Address the server binds to.
GDC_SWARM_TLS_CA	--swarm-tls-ca / --tls-ca	Certificate authority bundle to pin for swarm connections.

gdc-tui — the terminal app

Variable	Equivalent flag	Description
GDC_TUI_BIND	--bind	Connect to a running server.
GDC_TUI_DB_PATH	--db-path	Session database (self-contained mode).
GDC_TUI_CONFIG	--config	Config file (self-contained mode).
GDC_TUI_PROFILE	--profile	Starting profile (self-contained mode).
GDC_TUI_CWD	--cwd	Project directory (self-contained mode).
GDC_TUI_LOG_DIR	--log-dir	Directory for a log file.

Behavior toggles

Variable	Description
GDC_SHELL	Shell to use for running commands, instead of the system default.
GDC_DISABLE_MOUSE	Set to disable mouse capture in the terminal app.
RUST_LOG	Logging verbosity (for example info or debug).

Standard system variables

gdc also respects the usual environment for locating your home and config directories:

Variable	Description
HOME (or USERPROFILE on Windows)	Your home directory — where ~/.gdc/ lives.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	Alternate config location (<here>/gdc/config.toml).
PATH	Used to find programs the agent runs.

Example: configure via environment

export GDC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"
export GDC_MODEL="qwen2.5-coder:14b-instruct"
# export GDC_API_KEY="sk-..."   # only for hosted endpoints

gdc print "summarise this project"