Environment Variables

Syntic Code reads a set of SYNTIC_* environment variables for authentication, endpoint configuration, and behavior tuning. Environment variables are the preferred way to supply secrets and to configure the agent in non-interactive contexts such as CI, where there is no settings file or interactive login. Values set in the environment override the corresponding entries in .syntic/settings.json.

Authentication and endpoint

Variable	Description
`SYNTIC_API_KEY`	API key used to authenticate with Amara on api.syntic.ai. Required for headless use.
`SYNTIC_BASE_URL`	Override the API endpoint. Defaults to `https://api.syntic.ai`.
`SYNTIC_MODEL`	Default Amara model variant when `--model` is not passed.
`SYNTIC_ORG_ID`	Organization identifier for billing and access scoping.

Behavior and paths

Variable	Description
`SYNTIC_CONFIG_DIR`	Directory for global config. Defaults to `~/.syntic`.
`SYNTIC_PERMISSION_MODE`	Default approval mode: `ask`, `auto`, or `plan`.
`SYNTIC_CHANNEL`	Release channel: `stable`, `preview`, or `dev`.
`SYNTIC_NO_HOOKS`	When set to `1`, disables all lifecycle hooks.
`SYNTIC_TELEMETRY`	Set to `0` to opt out of anonymous usage telemetry.
`SYNTIC_LOG_LEVEL`	Logging verbosity: `error`, `warn`, `info`, or `debug`.
`SYNTIC_MAX_TOKENS`	Cap on output tokens per response.

Usage

Export variables in your shell profile for everyday use, or inline them for a single run. In CI, store SYNTIC_API_KEY as a secret and reference it from the job environment:

# Local, everyday setup
export SYNTIC_API_KEY="sk-..."
export SYNTIC_MODEL="amara-pro"
 
# One-off run with a debug log
SYNTIC_LOG_LEVEL=debug syntic -p "why did the build fail?"
 
# CI step
SYNTIC_API_KEY="$CI_SYNTIC_KEY" \
SYNTIC_PERMISSION_MODE=auto \
syntic --print "review the diff" --output-format json

Never commit a real SYNTIC_API_KEY to source control; supply it through your platform’s secret store instead.

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