Environment Variables

Complete reference of environment variables for Probe CLI and Probe Agent.

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AI Provider Keys

Variable	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic Claude API key
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI GPT API key
GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY	Google Gemini API key
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS access key (for Bedrock)
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS secret key (for Bedrock)
AWS_SESSION_TOKEN	AWS session token (optional)
AWS_REGION	AWS region (for Bedrock)

Example:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

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Probe CLI Variables

Debug & Logging

Variable	Values	Description
DEBUG	1 or unset	Enable detailed debug output with timing
NO_COLOR	Any value	Disable colored output
RUST_BACKTRACE	1 or full	Show Rust stack traces on errors

Example:

DEBUG=1 probe search "query" ./
NO_COLOR=1 probe search "query" ./ | less
RUST_BACKTRACE=1 probe search "query" ./

Performance Tuning

Variable	Values	Default	Description
PROBE_PARSER_POOL_SIZE	Number	max(CPU cores, 4)	Tree-sitter parser thread pool size
PROBE_TREE_CACHE_SIZE	Number	Auto	Parse tree cache size
PROBE_NO_PARSER_WARMUP	1 or unset	unset	Skip parser warmup phase
PROBE_OPTIMIZE_BLOCKS	1 or unset	unset	Enable block optimization

Example:

# Use 8 parser threads
PROBE_PARSER_POOL_SIZE=8 probe search "query" ./

# Skip warmup for faster cold start
PROBE_NO_PARSER_WARMUP=1 probe search "query" ./

SIMD Control

Variable	Values	Default	Description
DISABLE_SIMD_TOKENIZATION	1 or unset	unset	Disable SIMD tokenization
DISABLE_SIMD_RANKING	1 or unset	unset	Disable SIMD ranking
DISABLE_SIMD_PATTERN_MATCHING	1 or unset	unset	Disable SIMD patterns

Example:

# Disable all SIMD (for debugging)
DISABLE_SIMD_RANKING=1 probe search "query" ./

Behavior

Variable	Values	Default	Description
PROBE_NO_GITIGNORE	1 or unset	unset	Ignore .gitignore files globally
PROBE_SESSION_ID	String	-	Default session ID for caching

Example:

# Search all files including ignored
PROBE_NO_GITIGNORE=1 probe search "query" ./

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MCP Variables

Configuration

Variable	Values	Default	Description
MCP_CONFIG_PATH	File path	-	Path to MCP config file
MCP_MAX_TIMEOUT	Milliseconds	1800000	Maximum timeout (30s min, 2h max)

Example:

export MCP_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/mcp.config.json
export MCP_MAX_TIMEOUT=120000  # 2 minutes

Per-Server Configuration

Environment variables can configure individual MCP servers:

# Pattern: MCP_SERVERS_<NAME>_<PROPERTY>
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_COMMAND=npx
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_ARGS=-y,@modelcontextprotocol/server-github
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_TRANSPORT=stdio
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_ENABLED=true
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_TIMEOUT=60000
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_ALLOWLIST=search_*,get_*
MCP_SERVERS_GITHUB_BLOCKLIST=delete_*

# Use these to override config file settings

Debug

Variable	Values	Description
DEBUG_MCP	1 or unset	Enable MCP debug logging

Example:

DEBUG_MCP=1 probe mcp

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Probe Agent SDK Variables

Timeouts

Variable	Values	Default	Description
ENGINE_ACTIVITY_TIMEOUT	Milliseconds	180000	Engine activity timeout (3 min)

Range: 5000 (5s) to 600000 (10 min)

Provider Selection

The SDK auto-detects providers based on these environment variables:

# Priority order for auto-detection:
# 1. Claude Code CLI (if 'claude' command exists)
# 2. Codex CLI (if 'codex' command exists)
# 3. Anthropic (if ANTHROPIC_API_KEY set)
# 4. OpenAI (if OPENAI_API_KEY set)
# 5. Google (if GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY set)
# 6. Bedrock (if AWS credentials set)

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Node.js Variables

Variable	Values	Description
NODE_OPTIONS	Options	Node.js runtime options
NODE_ENV	development, production	Environment mode

Example:

# Increase memory for large codebases
NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=8192 npx probe-chat ./large-codebase

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Quick Reference

Minimal Setup

# Just need one API key
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
probe search "query" ./

Performance Optimized

export PROBE_PARSER_POOL_SIZE=8
export PROBE_NO_PARSER_WARMUP=1
probe search "query" ./

Debug Mode

export DEBUG=1
export DEBUG_MCP=1
export RUST_BACKTRACE=1
probe search "query" ./

MCP Server

export MCP_CONFIG_PATH=~/.config/probe/mcp.json
export MCP_MAX_TIMEOUT=120000
probe mcp

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Configuration File Locations

These locations are checked for configuration (in order):

MCP Config

1. $MCP_CONFIG_PATH (if set)
2. ./.mcp/config.json
3. ./mcp.config.json
4. ~/.config/probe/mcp.json
5. ~/.mcp/config.json
6. ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/mcp_config.json (macOS)

Claude Desktop (for MCP integration)

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

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Related Documentation

• FAQ - Common questions
• Troubleshooting - Problem solutions
• Performance Tuning - Optimization guide
• MCP Protocol - MCP configuration