Environment variables

This page lists the environment variables users and administrators commonly touch. Server-side values live in the control plane .env file created by setup.sh.

CLI variables

Variable	Required	Description
`TD_SERVER_URL`	Yes	URL of the Tandemn server that the CLI should contact.
`TD_API_KEY`	If enabled	API key for deployments that require authenticated client and replica communication.

export TD_SERVER_URL=<your-server-url>
export TD_API_KEY=<your-api-key>

Verify the value with:

echo $TD_SERVER_URL
tandemn check

Server variables

Server variables are release-specific. After running bash setup.sh, inspect .env.

Variable	Required	Description
`S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET`	Yes	Existing S3 bucket for uploaded workloads, chunk outputs, assembled output, and metrics.
`HF_TOKEN`	For gated models	HuggingFace token for models such as Llama and Gemma.
`TD_API_KEY`	Recommended	Shared API key for control plane authentication.
`KOI_SERVICE_URL`	Optional	URL for optional Koi recommendations and lifecycle callbacks. Leave unset for standalone Orca behavior.
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	For LLM advisor	Enables the LLM placement advisor when the performance database is installed.
`ORCA_URL`	Koi service only	URL Koi uses to call back to Orca/Tandemn System.

Do not expose secrets, credentials, tokens, or private hostnames in public documentation or committed files.

IAM requirements

At minimum, the server’s AWS credentials need permission to launch and terminate the instance types you plan to use, read and write objects in S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET, and read service quota values for capacity tracking. The server repository includes a least-privilege IAM policy example at docs/iam-policy.json.

Common mistakes

Setting TD_SERVER_URL in one shell and running tandemn from another shell.
Using a server URL that is reachable from the admin machine but not from the user’s network.
Leaving S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET pointed at a bucket that does not exist.
Setting KOI_SERVICE_URL accidentally when you want standalone behavior.
Committing .env by accident.

Start here

Reference

Environment variables

CLI variables

Server variables

IAM requirements

Common mistakes

​CLI variables

​Server variables

​IAM requirements

​Common mistakes

CLI variables

Server variables

IAM requirements

Common mistakes