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Configuration — the .env walkthrough·

cp .env.example .env and fill it in. The file is .gitignored; never commit it, never paste it into a gist (GitHub secret scanning revokes OpenAI keys within minutes — we learned this the hard way). The names below are the ones .env.example ships; the reference lists all 150+ variables the code can read.

variable what
ROVER_SDK_URL where the agent finds the Earth Rovers SDK. http://localhost:8002 locally; compose overrides it to http://sdk:8002.
SDK_API_TOKEN, BOT_SLUG your FrodoBots credentials and the rover's slug — used by the SDK container (earth-rovers-sdk/.env locally).
CHROME_EXECUTABLE_PATH the browser the SDK drives headlessly; /usr/bin/chromium in the image.
MAP_ZOOM_LEVEL, IMAGE_QUALITY, IMAGE_FORMAT SDK frame settings — jpeg at 0.8 is the bandwidth-friendly default.

Model·

variable what
STRANDS_MODEL_ID the Bedrock model id every text persona uses (the cockpit's ⚙️ drawer can swap it live).
STRANDS_MAX_TOKENS max output tokens per turn.
AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK (optional) otherwise the standard AWS credential chain (AWS_REGION etc.).
OPENAI_API_KEY the OpenAI Realtime voice provider (and any OpenAI text model).
GOOGLE_API_KEY / GEMINI_API_KEY Gemini Live voice.

Voice·

variable what
VOICE_PROVIDER openai · nova_sonic · gemini
VOICE_MODEL e.g. gpt-realtime-2
VOICE_NAME provider voice — marin, shimmer, matthew, Kore…
TTS_PROVIDER, TTS_API_KEY, TTS_VOICE the SDK-side text-to-speech behind /speak (edge is free).

Telegram·

SCOUT_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN, SCOUT_TELEGRAM_DEFAULT_CHAT_ID, SCOUT_TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS (comma-separated user ids — only these can command the rover), SCOUT_TELEGRAM_HISTORY_LIMIT.

Datasets·

ROVER_REPO_ID pins one growing dataset; unset → one dataset per day per persona (scout__earth-rover-mini-YYYYMMDD/<persona>). ROVER_DATASET_ROOT (default datasets). Recording knobs — ROVER_RECORD_FPS 10, SCOUT_AUTO_RECORD, SCOUT_SEAL_EPISODES, SCOUT_VCODEC — are covered in Datasets.

Cockpit & auth (compose sets sane defaults)·

DASH_PORT 8080 · DASH_TLS true · DASH_TLS_HOSTS extra SANs · SCOUT_AUTH_ENABLED true · SCOUT_AUTH_RP_ID / SCOUT_AUTH_ORIGIN (the public hostname when behind a tunnel) · SCOUT_AUTH_BOOTSTRAP_TOKEN (one-time enrol token; without it the first passkey enrols freely, then the door closes) · SCOUT_PUBLIC_URL (printed on the field card / QR) · SCOUT_MDNS_NAME. Details in Auth.

Personas·

THINKER_INTERVAL (s), THINKER_TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID, SCOUT_THINKER_DRIVE (fallback when .memory/personas.json has no flag), SCOUT_SUPERVISOR_TOKEN (shared secret between the dashboard and the host supervisor), SCOUT_BRIEFING_MUTE_SOURCES (which personas' briefings the voice agent should not speak aloud; default thinker).

Fleet (separate file)·

.tiny-mcp.env — TINY_MCP=1, TINY_TOKEN, TINY_MCP_PERSONAS, TINY_SELF_DEVICE_IDS. Only the agent containers read it. → Fleet

Secrets hygiene

.env, .tiny-mcp.env, earth-rovers-sdk/, *.creds.json, .scout_auth.json, .supervisor/ and notes.md are all in .gitignore. Keep them there. Rotate any key that ever touched a public place.