Environment Variables

kicode uses several environment variables for configuration. These override settings from the config file.

Required Variables

`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`

Your OpenRouter API key for authentication.

Property	Value
Required	Yes (unless set in config file)
Format	`sk-or-v1-...`
Overrides	`api_key` in config file

Get a key: openrouter.ai/keys

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-your-key-here"

Optional Variables

`KICODE_MODEL`

Override the default AI model.

Property	Value
Required	No
Format	OpenRouter model ID
Default	`x-ai/grok-code-fast-1`
Overrides	`model` in config file

export KICODE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"

`KICODE_DEBUG`

Enable debug output for troubleshooting.

Property	Value
Required	No
Format	`1` to enable
Default	Disabled

export KICODE_DEBUG=1

When enabled, kicode prints:

API request/response details
Tool execution details
Configuration loading info

Setting Environment Variables

Temporary (Current Session)

# Set for current terminal session
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."

# Or set for a single command
OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..." kicode

Permanent (Shell Profile)

Add to your shell configuration file:

Bash (~/.bashrc):

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."
export KICODE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"

Zsh (~/.zshrc):

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."
export KICODE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"

Fish (~/.config/fish/config.fish):

set -gx OPENROUTER_API_KEY "sk-or-v1-..."
set -gx KICODE_MODEL "anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"

After editing, reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

Per-Project (dotenv)

While kicode doesn’t automatically load .env files, you can use tools like direnv:

# .envrc in your project
export KICODE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"

Priority Order

When a setting is available from multiple sources:

CLI arguments (highest priority)
- kicode --model xyz
Environment variables
- KICODE_MODEL="xyz"
Config file
- model = "xyz" in config.toml
Built-in defaults (lowest priority)

Example:

# Config file: model = "gpt-4"
# Environment: KICODE_MODEL="claude-3"
# CLI: --model opus

kicode --model opus
# Uses: opus (CLI wins)

kicode
# Uses: claude-3 (env wins over config)

Checking Current Values

To see what values kicode is using:

# Enable debug mode
KICODE_DEBUG=1 kicode

# Output shows loaded configuration

Common Patterns

Different Models per Project

# In project A
cd ~/project-a
KICODE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet" kicode

# In project B
cd ~/project-b
KICODE_MODEL="openai/gpt-4-turbo" kicode

Testing with Debug Mode

# One-time debug session
KICODE_DEBUG=1 kicode

Quick Model Override

# Use a specific model without changing config
kicode --model anthropic/claude-3-opus

Troubleshooting

”API key not found” Error

The API key is not set anywhere.

Check:

echo $OPENROUTER_API_KEY
# Should print your key

Fix:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."

Environment Variable Not Taking Effect

Shell may need to be reloaded.