release-tracker

Environment Variables Reference

This document provides a comprehensive reference for all environment variables supported by the Release Tracker project, including their purposes, usage examples, and default values.

📋 Table of Contents

Core Configuration
Authentication Tokens
AWS/S3 Configuration
Redis Configuration
Notification Configuration
Runtime Control
Usage Examples
Best Practices

🔧 Core Configuration

CONFIG_SOURCE

Purpose: Specifies the location of the configuration file
Format: Local file path, HTTP(S) URL, or S3 bucket URL
Default: config.yaml

Examples:

# Local file
export CONFIG_SOURCE="config.yaml"
export CONFIG_SOURCE="/path/to/custom-config.yaml"
  
# HTTP(S) URL
export CONFIG_SOURCE="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user/repo/main/config.yaml"
  
# S3 bucket
export CONFIG_SOURCE="s3://my-bucket/config.yaml"

🔐 Authentication Tokens

GH_TOKEN

Purpose: GitHub Personal Access Token for GitHub API access
Required: Optional (but recommended for higher rate limits)
Permissions: public_repo (for public repos), repo (for private repos)
Usage: Increases GitHub API rate limits from 60/hour to 5000/hour

Example:

export GH_TOKEN="ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

GITLAB_TOKEN

Purpose: GitLab Personal Access Token for GitLab API access
Required: Optional (required for private repositories)
Scopes: read_api, read_repository
Usage: Access private GitLab repositories and increase rate limits

Example:

export GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

DOCKER_TOKEN

Purpose: Docker Hub authentication token
Required: Optional (for private repositories or higher rate limits)
Usage: Access private Docker repositories and avoid rate limiting

Example:

export DOCKER_TOKEN="dckr_pat_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

APKMIRROR_TOKEN

Purpose: APKMirror API authentication token
Required: Required for APKMirror watcher
Usage: Access APKMirror API for Android app version checking

Example:

export APKMIRROR_TOKEN="your_apkmirror_api_token"

☁️ AWS/S3 Configuration

Used when loading configuration from S3 buckets or CloudFlare R2.

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

Purpose: AWS access key for S3 authentication
Required: Required when using S3 config source
Usage: Authenticate with AWS S3 to download configuration files

Example:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"

AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

Purpose: AWS secret key for S3 authentication
Required: Required when using S3 config source
Usage: Authenticate with AWS S3 to download configuration files

Example:

export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY"

AWS_REGION

Purpose: AWS region for S3 bucket location
Required: Required when using S3 config source
Default: No default, must be specified
Example:
```
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
```

S3_ENDPOINT_URL

Purpose: Custom S3-compatible endpoint URL
Required: Optional (for non-AWS S3 services like CloudFlare R2)
Usage: Use S3-compatible services like CloudFlare R2, MinIO, etc.

Example:

export S3_ENDPOINT_URL="https://your-account-id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"

🗄️ Redis Configuration

Used for persistent state storage to track last seen releases.

REDIS_HOST

Purpose: Redis server hostname or IP address
Required: Required when using Redis persistence
Default: localhost (when not specified in config)

Example:

export REDIS_HOST="redis-server.example.com"
export REDIS_HOST="127.0.0.1"

REDIS_PORT

Purpose: Redis server port number
Required: Optional
Default: 6379

Example:

export REDIS_PORT="6379"
export REDIS_PORT="16379"  # Custom port

REDIS_DB

Purpose: Redis database number to use
Required: Optional
Default: 0
Range: 0-15 (typically)

Example:

export REDIS_DB="0"
export REDIS_DB="1"  # Use database 1

REDIS_PASSWORD

Purpose: Redis authentication password
Required: Optional (required for password-protected Redis)
Usage: Authenticate with Redis servers that require authentication

Example:

export REDIS_PASSWORD="your_redis_password"

🔔 Notification Configuration

APPRISE_URL

Purpose: Apprise notification service URL
Required: Required for notifications
Supports: 80+ notification services (Discord, Slack, Telegram, etc.)

Examples:

# Discord webhook
export APPRISE_URL="discord://webhook_id/webhook_token"
  
# Telegram bot
export APPRISE_URL="tgram://bot_token/chat_id"
  
# Slack webhook
export APPRISE_URL="slack://webhook_token"
  
# Email (SMTP)
export APPRISE_URL="mailto://user:[email protected]:587/[email protected]"
  
# Multiple services (comma-separated)
export APPRISE_URL="discord://webhook1,tgram://bot_token/chat_id"

🎛️ Runtime Control

FORCE_NOTIFY

Purpose: Force notifications even for already-seen releases
Required: Optional
Usage: Re-send notifications for releases that have already been processed
Values: Any non-empty value enables force mode

Examples:

# Enable force notifications
export FORCE_NOTIFY="1"
export FORCE_NOTIFY="true"
export FORCE_NOTIFY="yes"
  
# Run with force notifications
FORCE_NOTIFY=1 python main.py
  
# Disable (default)
unset FORCE_NOTIFY

💡 Usage Examples

Development Environment

# Basic setup for development
export CONFIG_SOURCE="config.yaml"
export GH_TOKEN="ghp_your_development_token"
export APPRISE_URL="discord://your_webhook"

# Local Redis
export REDIS_HOST="localhost"
export REDIS_PORT="6379"
export REDIS_DB="0"

Production Environment

# Production setup with S3 config
export CONFIG_SOURCE="s3://prod-configs/release-tracker/config.yaml"
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..."
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="..."
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"

# Authentication tokens
export GH_TOKEN="ghp_production_token"
export GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat_production_token"
export DOCKER_TOKEN="dckr_pat_production_token"

# Production Redis (managed service)
export REDIS_HOST="prod-redis.cache.amazonaws.com"
export REDIS_PORT="6379"
export REDIS_PASSWORD="your_redis_password"
export REDIS_DB="0"

# Production notifications
export APPRISE_URL="tgram://bot_token/chat_id,slack://webhook_token"

Docker Environment

# Docker Compose with environment variables
version: '3.8'
services:
  release-tracker:
    image: release-tracker
    environment:
      - CONFIG_SOURCE=config.yaml
      - GH_TOKEN=${GH_TOKEN}
      - GITLAB_TOKEN=${GITLAB_TOKEN}
      - APPRISE_URL=${APPRISE_URL}
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=6379
      - REDIS_DB=0
    depends_on:
      - redis
      
  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine

Testing Environment

# Testing with force notifications
export CONFIG_SOURCE="test-config.yaml"
export FORCE_NOTIFY="1"
export APPRISE_URL="mailto://[email protected]"

# Test Redis
export REDIS_HOST="localhost"
export REDIS_DB="15"  # Use separate test database

🛡️ Best Practices

Security

Never commit tokens to version control
Use .env files for local development (add to .gitignore)
Use secrets management in production (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault)
Rotate tokens regularly and use minimal required permissions

Configuration Management

Environment-specific configs: Use different config files for dev/staging/prod
Variable validation: Ensure required variables are set before running
Default values: Use fallback values in config files with ${VAR:-default}

Redis Security

Use authentication in production (REDIS_PASSWORD)
Use SSL/TLS for remote Redis connections
Separate databases for different environments (REDIS_DB)

Example .env File

# .env file for local development (DO NOT COMMIT)
CONFIG_SOURCE=config.yaml
GH_TOKEN=ghp_your_github_token_here
GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat_your_gitlab_token_here
APPRISE_URL=discord://your_webhook_id/your_webhook_token
REDIS_HOST=localhost
REDIS_PORT=6379
REDIS_DB=0

Loading .env File

# Load .env file in bash
set -a && source .env && set +a

# Then run the application
python main.py

Note: Environment variables in YAML configuration files use the ${VARIABLE_NAME} syntax and support default values with ${VARIABLE_NAME:-default_value}.

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