Environment variables - Autter

SDK configuration (backend)

Variable	Used by	Description
`AUTTER_RUNTIME_KEY`	`@autter/runtime-node`, any OTel SDK	Secret server key (`autter_rt_…`). Passed as `apiKey` to `initAutterServer` / `createBrowserRelayHandler`, or as the `Authorization: Bearer` header for a raw OTLP exporter.
`AUTTER_ENDPOINT`	`@autter/runtime-node`	Base URL of your ingester. Defaults to Autter’s hosted endpoint (`https://otlp.autter.dev`) if unset.
`GIT_SHA`	any	Convention used in the docs and examples for the `release` field — wire it to your build’s git commit so regressions can be traced to a release.
`NODE_ENV`	`@autter/runtime-node`	Commonly passed through as `environment`.

Frontend equivalents are passed directly to initAutterBrowser({...}) rather than read from process.env (bundlers don’t expose server env vars to the browser by default) — for example import.meta.env.VITE_GIT_SHA for release.

Ingester configuration (self-hosted)

Variable	Required	Description
`CLICKHOUSE_URL`	yes	ClickHouse HTTP(S) endpoint the ingester writes to.
`CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD`	yes	ClickHouse password for the ingester’s user.
`AUTTER_INGEST_KEYS`	yes, unless using `AUTTER_KEY_VALIDATOR_URL`	JSON array mapping ingest keys to `{orgId, repositoryId}`. See format below.
`AUTTER_KEY_VALIDATOR_URL`	alternative to `AUTTER_INGEST_KEYS`	URL of your own key-validation service, for dynamic key management instead of a static env-var list.
`AUTTER_SINK_URL`	no	Optional webhook. Each ingest batch is POSTed here as normalized occurrences — see Architecture. Delivery is best-effort, fire-and-forget.

`AUTTER_INGEST_KEYS`

A JSON array, one entry per key:

AUTTER_INGEST_KEYS='[
  {"key":"autter_rt_REPLACE_ME","orgId":"my-org","repositoryId":"my-app"},
  {"key":"autter_rtc_REPLACE_ME","orgId":"my-org","repositoryId":"my-app",
   "scope":"client","allowedOrigins":["https://app.example.com"]}
]'

Server keys (autter_rt_…) have no scope field and can send OTLP traces/metrics plus relay browser events.
Client keys (autter_rtc_…) need "scope": "client" and an allowedOrigins list — the ingester rejects /v1/browser requests whose Origin isn’t on the list.
One key pair per app or repository — repositoryId is how data is grouped for analysis.

Generate keys with anything sufficiently random, for example:

echo "autter_rt_$(openssl rand -hex 16)"

Full config reference: packages/otlp-ingester.

Self-hosting

Run the ingester locally, on a single server, or on AWS.