Environment Variables

.env

Some Airalogy Protocol Assigners need environment variables to function—for instance, an external LLM API_KEY or a DATABASE_URL. Place these variables in a .env file at the root of the protocol package:

protocol/
├── protocol.aimd
├── model.py
├── assigner.py
└── .env

API_KEY=your_api_key
DATABASE_URL=your_database_url

When you upload the protocol to the Airalogy platform:

1. Security first – the platform deletes the .env file from the cloud copy.
2. Airalogy reads the variables and stores them in the protocol’s Environment settings.
3. At runtime, those variables are injected automatically.

.env.example

To help other developers discover the required variables, include an example file:

protocol/
├── protocol.aimd
├── model.py
├── assigner.py
├── .env          (ignored after upload)
└── .env.example  (retained)

API_KEY=your_api_key
DATABASE_URL=your_database_url

The platform keeps .env.example, so collaborators know which keys to define.

Do Not Use the dotenv Library

In local projects you might load .env via python-dotenv:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()
API_KEY = os.getenv("API_KEY")

This is forbidden on Airalogy—protocols using dotenv will be rejected. Rely on the platform’s automatic injection and fetch values directly:

import os

API_KEY = os.getenv("API_KEY")
DATABASE_URL = os.getenv("DATABASE_URL")

Local Testing Options

1. Shell variables

   export API_KEY=your_api_key
   export DATABASE_URL=your_database_url

   Then call os.getenv() inside Python.

2. Temporary dotenv Use python-dotenv during local development, but remove any dotenv import before uploading.

By following these guidelines you keep secrets safe while ensuring your protocol runs smoothly both locally and on the Airalogy platform.