Environment Variables

Complete reference for Pounce environment variables. Required for self-hosted deployments.

Required Variables

Variable	Description	Example
`DATABASE_URL`	PostgreSQL connection string	`postgresql://...`
`SESSION_SECRET`	Secret for signing session cookies	Random 32+ character string
`LLM_PROVIDER`	AI provider	`openai`, `anthropic`, or `ollama`
`LLM_API_KEY`	API key for the LLM provider	`sk-...`
`EMAIL_PROVIDER`	Email sending provider	`resend`, `sendgrid`, or `mailgun`
`EMAIL_API_KEY`	API key for the sending provider	`re_...`, `SG...`, or `key-...`
`EMAIL_FROM`	Sender email address	`hello@yourdomain.com`
`SITE_URL`	Your Pounce instance URL	`https://pounce.yourdomain.com`

Optional Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`LLM_MODEL`	Model to use for AI responses	Provider default
`LLM_BASE_URL`	Custom API base URL (for Ollama)	Provider default
`PORT`	Server port	`3000`
`NODE_ENV`	Environment	`development`

OAuth Variables (Gmail)

Variable	Description
`GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID`	Google OAuth client ID
`GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET`	Google OAuth client secret

OAuth Variables (Outlook)

Variable	Description
`MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID`	Microsoft Entra app ID
`MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET`	Microsoft Entra app secret

Resend Inbound Webhook

Variable	Description
`RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET`	Secret for verifying Resend webhook signatures

Booking Webhook Secret

Variable	Description
`CALENDLY_WEBHOOK_SIGNING_KEY`	Calendly webhook signature key
`CALCOM_WEBHOOK_SECRET`	Cal.com webhook secret

Setting Variables

Self-hosted (systemd)

Create a .env file in your Pounce directory:

# /opt/pounce/.env (chmod 600)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
SESSION_SECRET=your-random-secret
LLM_PROVIDER=openai
LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
EMAIL_PROVIDER=resend
EMAIL_API_KEY=re_...
EMAIL_FROM=hello@yourdomain.com
SITE_URL=https://pounce.yourdomain.com

The systemd service loads this file automatically.

Vercel

Set environment variables in the Vercel dashboard under Settings → Environment Variables, or via the CLI:

vercel env add DATABASE_URL production