Environment Variables¶

Complete reference for all environment variables used in TradAI services.

Overview¶

TradAI uses a hierarchical configuration system:

1. Root .env: Shared variables used across all services
2. Service .env: Service-specific variables (e.g., services/backend/.env)
3. Environment variables: Runtime overrides

Priority order: Environment variables > Service .env > Root .env

Shared Configuration¶

These variables are defined in the root .env file and shared across services.

Required¶

Optional¶

Development-Only¶

CLI Configuration¶

The CLI resolves service URLs from ~/.tradai/config.yaml (recommended) with environment variable overrides.

Resolution priority: CLI flag > environment variable > config file > localhost default.

See CLI Reference > Configuration File for the config file format.

Backend Service¶

Environment prefix: BACKEND_

Server Settings¶

External Services¶

AWS Resources¶

Executor Configuration¶

ECS Executor¶

Step Functions Executor¶

Cognito Authentication¶

Strategy Service¶

Environment prefix: STRATEGY_SERVICE_

Server Settings¶

S3 Configuration¶

MLflow Configuration¶

Data Configuration¶

Backtest Configuration¶

A/B Testing¶

Data Collection Service¶

Environment prefix: DATA_COLLECTION_

Server Settings¶

ArcticDB Configuration¶

Exchange Configuration¶

Exchange JSON format:

{
  "binance_futures": {
    "name": "binance",
    "trading_mode": "futures",
    "api_key": "...",
    "api_secret": "..."
  }
}

Streaming Configuration¶

MLflow Service¶

Server Settings¶

Storage Configuration¶

Backend Store URI examples:

# Development (Docker Compose PostgreSQL)
MLFLOW_BACKEND_STORE_URI=postgresql://tradai:tradai_dev@postgres:5432/mlflow

# Production (RDS)
MLFLOW_BACKEND_STORE_URI=postgresql://mlflowuser:${PASSWORD}@rds-endpoint:5432/mlflow

Artifact Root examples:

# Development (local volume)
MLFLOW_DEFAULT_ARTIFACT_ROOT=/mlflow/artifacts

# Production (S3)
MLFLOW_DEFAULT_ARTIFACT_ROOT=s3://tradai-mlflow-prod/artifacts

Lambda Functions¶

Lambda handlers use environment variables without prefixes. All variables in this section are Lambda-Only -- they are read by Lambda handler code and set via Pulumi infrastructure.

Common Lambda Settings¶

Required¶

Optional¶

Health Check Lambda¶

Drift Monitor Lambda¶

Retraining Scheduler Lambda¶

Trading Heartbeat Lambda¶

Model Management Lambda¶

Local Development¶

Quick Start¶

# Copy example files
cp .env.example .env
cp services/backend/.env.example services/backend/.env
cp services/data-collection/.env.example services/data-collection/.env

# Edit with your values
nano .env

Docker Compose Development¶

# Required for local development
COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=tradai
TAG=latest
MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI=http://mlflow:5000  # Internal Docker network
# For host access (MLflow UI): http://localhost:5001

# Backend connects to other services via Docker network
BACKEND_DATA_COLLECTION_URL=http://data-collection:8002
BACKEND_STRATEGY_SERVICE_URL=http://strategy-service:8003

LocalStack (Local AWS)¶

For testing AWS services locally:

# ArcticDB with LocalStack
DATA_COLLECTION_ARCTIC_S3_ENDPOINT=localstack:4566
DATA_COLLECTION_ARCTIC_USE_SSL=false
DATA_COLLECTION_ARCTIC_USE_VIRTUAL_ADDRESSING=false
DATA_COLLECTION_ARCTIC_ACCESS_KEY=test
DATA_COLLECTION_ARCTIC_SECRET_KEY=test

Production Deployment¶

IAM Roles (Recommended)¶

In production, use IAM roles instead of access keys:

# Do NOT set these in production
# AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
# AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=

# IAM role attached to ECS task or EC2 instance handles authentication
AWS_REGION=eu-central-1

Secrets Manager¶

Use AWS Secrets Manager for sensitive values:

# Reference secrets by name, not value
STRATEGY_SERVICE_EXCHANGE_SECRET_NAME=tradai/exchange-credentials

Environment-Specific Configuration¶

# Load config from S3 for environment-specific settings
S3_CONFIG=s3://tradai-config/production/config.yaml

See Also¶

• Developer Setup
• Docker Setup
• Pulumi Deployment