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Environment variables

Clawdbot pulls environment variables from multiple sources. The rule is never override existing values.

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Precedence (highest → lowest)

  1. Process environment (what the Gateway process already has from the parent shell/daemon).
  2. .env in the current working directory (dotenv default; does not override).
  3. Global .env at ~/.clawdbot/.env (aka $CLAWDBOT_STATE_DIR/.env; does not override).
  4. Config env block in ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json (applied only if missing).
  5. Optional login-shell import (env.shellEnv.enabled or CLAWDBOT_LOAD_SHELL_ENV=1), applied only for missing expected keys.
If the config file is missing entirely, step 4 is skipped; shell import still runs if enabled.

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Config env block

Two equivalent ways to set inline env vars (both are non-overriding): 
{
  env: {
    OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "sk-or-...",
    vars: {
      GROQ_API_KEY: "gsk-..."
    }
  }
}

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Shell env import

env.shellEnv runs your login shell and imports only missing expected keys: 
{
  env: {
    shellEnv: {
      enabled: true,
      timeoutMs: 15000
    }
  }
}
Env var equivalents:
  • CLAWDBOT_LOAD_SHELL_ENV=1
  • CLAWDBOT_SHELL_ENV_TIMEOUT_MS=15000