Environment Variables
When using PostHog, there are various environment variables you can set to configure your instance. Below is a comprehensive list of all of them. However, for general use, you most likely do not have to worry about the vast majority of these.
Rows with a missing 'Default Value' usually default to an empty string. This is different from None.
Some variables here are default Django variables. This Django Docs page has more information about them.
| Variable | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
DEBUG |
Determines if PostHog should run in DEBUG mode. You can set this to a truthy value when developing, but disable this in production! | False |
SECRET_KEY |
Used by Django for cryptography. Helps secure cookies, sessions, hashes, etc. Custom value required in production. | <randomly generated secret key> |
SECURE_COOKIES |
Determines if Django should use secure cookies. Insecure cookies do not work without HTTPS. | False if PostHog is running in DEBUG or TEST mode, else True |
SITE_URL |
URL of your PostHog instance. | http://localhost:8000 |
JS_URL |
URL used by Webpack for loading external resources like images and files. | http://localhost:8234 if PostHog is running in DEBUG mode, must be specified otherwise. |
SENTRY_DSN |
Used to integrate with Sentry error and event tracking. Ignored when running tests. | None |
ASYNC_EVENT_ACTION_MAPPING |
If set to False, actions will be matched to events as they come. Otherwise, the matching will happen in batches through a periodic Celery task. Should only be toggled on by high load instances. |
False |
DISABLE_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT |
Disables automatic redirect from port 80 (HTTP) to port 443 (HTTPS). | False |
IS_BEHIND_PROXY |
Specifies if PostHog is running behind a proxy like Apache or NGINX. | False |
ALLOWED_IP_BLOCKS |
Specifies IP blocks allowed to connect to the PostHog instance. | |
TRUSTED_PROXIES |
Specifies the IPs of proxies that can be trusted. | False |
TRUST_ALL_PROXIES |
Determines if all proxies can be trusted. | False |
ALLOWED_HOSTS |
A list of strings representing the host/domain names that Django can serve. More info. | * |
STATSD_HOST |
Host of a running StatsD daemon (e.g. 127.0.0.1) | None |
STATSD_PORT |
Port for the running StatsD daemon | 8125 |
STATSD_PREFIX |
Prefix to be prepended to all stats used by StatsD. Useful for distinguishing environments using the same server. | None |
SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY |
GitHub key for allowing sign up with GitHub. | |
SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_SECRET |
GitHub secret for allowing sign up with GitHub. | |
SOCIAL_AUTH_GITLAB_KEY |
GitLab key for allowing sign up with GitLab. | |
SOCIAL_AUTH_GITLAB_SECRET |
GitLab secret for allowing sign up with GitLab. | |
SOCIAL_AUTH_GITLAB_API_URL |
Endpoint to be used for GitLab authentication. Changing this is only relevant for self-host GitLab users. | https://gitlab.com |
DATABASE_URL |
Database URL pointing to your PostgreSQL instance. | postgres://localhost:5432/posthog if PostHog is running in DEBUG or TEST mode, must be specified otherwise. |
REDIS_URL |
Redis URL pointing to your Redis instance. | redis://localhost/ if PostHog is running in DEBUG or TEST mode, must be specified otherwise. |
EMAIL_HOST |
Used for configuring SMTP. Host of your email server. | None |
EMAIL_PORT |
Used for configuring SMTP. Port used by your email server in the specified host. | None |
EMAIL_HOST_USER |
Used for configuring SMTP. Username used by the email server. | None |
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD |
Used for configuring SMTP. Password for the specified username used by the email server. | None |
EMAIL_USE_TLS |
Used for configuring SMTP. Determines if TLS should be used for the email service. It is recommended that either this or EMAIL_USE_SSL be set to True. |
False |
EMAIL_USE_TLS |
Used for configuring SMTP. Determines if SSL should be used for the email service. It is recommended that either this or EMAIL_USE_TLS be set to True. |
False |
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL |
Determines the email address that should be used to send emails. | tim@posthog.com |