Environment Variables

Chat Gipitty uses several environment variables for configuration. These variables allow you to customize the behavior without modifying configuration files or passing command-line arguments repeatedly.

Required Variables

OPENAI_API_KEY

Required for most functionality

Your OpenAI API key or compatible API key for your chosen provider.

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-api-key-here"

For other providers:

# Google Gemini
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key"

# Anthropic Claude
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-claude-api-key"

# Mistral AI
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-mistral-api-key"

Optional Variables

OPENAI_BASE_URL

Default: https://api.openai.com

Specify a custom API endpoint for OpenAI-compatible providers.

# Local Ollama instance
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"

# Google Gemini (via OpenAI-compatible proxy)
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta"

# Mistral AI
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.mistral.ai/v1"

# Anthropic Claude (via proxy)
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.anthropic.com/v1"

# Custom provider
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://your-provider.com/v1"

URL Construction Logic

Chat Gipitty intelligently constructs the API endpoint:

• If your base URL already contains /chat/completions, it uses it as-is
• If your base URL ends with /v1 (or similar version pattern), it appends /chat/completions
• Otherwise, it appends /v1/chat/completions (standard OpenAI pattern)

Examples:

# These all work correctly:
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.example.com/v1"
# Results in: https://api.example.com/v1/chat/completions

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.example.com/v2/chat/completions"
# Results in: https://api.example.com/v2/chat/completions (used as-is)

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.example.com"
# Results in: https://api.example.com/v1/chat/completions

CGIP_SESSION_NAME

Default: No session management

Controls session management and uniqueness. The uniqueness of your session depends on the value of this variable.

# New session for each terminal (using uuid)
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuid)

# Daily sessions (same session for entire day)
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date -I)

# Weekly sessions
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date +%Y-W%U)

# Project-specific sessions
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="project-$(basename $PWD)"

# Manual session naming
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="my-coding-session"

Session Examples

Terminal-specific sessions:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuid)

Date-based sessions:

# Daily sessions
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date -I)  # 2024-01-15

# Weekly sessions  
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date +%Y-W%U)  # 2024-W03

# Monthly sessions
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date +%Y-%m)  # 2024-01

Project-based sessions:

# Use current directory name
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="project-$(basename $PWD)"

# Use git repository name
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="git-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel | xargs basename)"

Configuration in Shell Profiles

Bash (~/.bashrc)

# Basic configuration
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuid)

# Custom provider configuration
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="ollama"  # Ollama doesn't require a real key

Zsh (~/.zshrc)

# Basic configuration
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuid)

# Project-aware sessions
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="$(basename $PWD)-$(date -I)"

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

# Basic configuration
set -gx OPENAI_API_KEY "your-api-key-here"
set -gx CGIP_SESSION_NAME (uuid)

# Daily sessions
set -gx CGIP_SESSION_NAME (date -I)

Provider-Specific Configurations

OpenAI (Default)

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-openai-key"
# OPENAI_BASE_URL uses default: https://api.openai.com

Ollama (Local)

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="ollama"  # Placeholder, not used by Ollama

Google Gemini

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key"

Mistral AI

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.mistral.ai/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-mistral-api-key"

Anthropic Claude (via proxy)

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.anthropic.com/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-claude-api-key"

Advanced Configuration

Multiple API Keys

For different projects or providers:

# Project-specific configuration
if [[ "$PWD" == *"work-project"* ]]; then
    export OPENAI_API_KEY="$WORK_OPENAI_KEY"
    export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://work-api.company.com/v1"
else
    export OPENAI_API_KEY="$PERSONAL_OPENAI_KEY"
    # Use default OpenAI endpoint
fi

Dynamic Session Names

# Function to generate smart session names
cgip_session() {
    if git rev-parse --git-dir > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        # In a git repository
        echo "git-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel | xargs basename)-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
    else
        # Not in git, use directory and date
        echo "$(basename $PWD)-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
    fi
}

export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(cgip_session)

Conditional Configuration

# Use local Ollama during development, OpenAI in production
if [[ "$ENVIRONMENT" == "development" ]]; then
    export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"
    export OPENAI_API_KEY="ollama"
else
    export OPENAI_API_KEY="$PRODUCTION_OPENAI_KEY"
fi

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

API Key not found:

# Check if variable is set
echo $OPENAI_API_KEY

# Set temporarily for testing
OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key" cgip "test query"

Wrong endpoint:

# Check current base URL
echo $OPENAI_BASE_URL

# Test with explicit URL
OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1" cgip "test query"

Session not working:

# Check session name
echo $CGIP_SESSION_NAME

# Test session functionality
cgip session --view

Debugging Environment

# Show all cgip-related environment variables
env | grep -E "(OPENAI|CGIP)"

# Test configuration
cgip config --get model
cgip config --get base_url

Security Considerations

API Key Security

• Never commit API keys to version control
• Use environment files that are gitignored
• Consider using secret management tools for production

Environment Files

Create a .env file (add to .gitignore):

# .env file
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-secret-key
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com
CGIP_SESSION_NAME=my-session

Load with:

# Load environment file
source .env

Session Privacy

• Be aware that session names might be visible in process lists
• Use generic session names for sensitive work
• Clear sessions when working with confidential information:

  cgip session --clear